Howard Neil Thurlow, 61, passed away on June 3, 2024. He is survived by his wife, Angel Thurlow, of Daytona Beach, FL; his brother, Rob Thurlow, of Austin TX; and his four children, Katherine Thurlow of Orlando, FL; Daniel Thurlow of Daytona Beach, FL; Brandon Thurlow of Denver, CO; and Jennifer Thurlow of Denver, CO.

For others to fully understand the loss of my father, I want to take a moment to paint a picture of a typical evening with him:

Billy Joel’s “The Piano Man” follows a crescendo of Metallica, Howard’s humming a soothing part of the background music. He’s cooking a new recipe he found online, creating a show of his entrée, even though it’s a random Tuesday. This is where he was happiest: trying new things, exploring his options, following a new path in the kitchen, and doing what he loved: cooking. Wafts of delicious scents spread through the house, and his well-researched menu sits on the counter, slowly getting messier as he progresses through his art form due to a combination of food splatters and scribbled notes. This is how I’ll always remember my dad: happily humming through life, dabbling in his favorite hobby, blasting the music a little too loudly on occasion, driving us crazy, and although we’d never admit the truth- we loved it too.

Howard grew up in Florida with his older brother, Rob. The two played the typical pranks on one another, as brothers do. Rob fondly remembers the fiasco when he was in a knot-tying phase in his youth and convinced little Howie to let Rob tie him to some outdoor furniture. The prank backfired horribly when Rob couldn’t figure out how to untie him and their dad discovered Howard stuck to the furniture. Rob blurted out, “Howie, how did you get yourself all tied up like that?” Needless to say, their father wasn’t fooled, and the prank wars between the brothers continued.

In high school, he met the love of his life, Angel. They both went to the University of Central Florida, where Howard graduated with a degree in Computer Science in 1985. In May 1986 Howard and Angel got married. He lived with his new family in South Florida until 1999. At that time they moved to Colorado. To mark the occasion, he ordered “snow” to be delivered to his home in Florida so that his two young children could become better acquainted with the colder weather of their new home. It is likely the coldest neighborhood party in South Florida to date.

Howard curated a career in sales and technology, building meaningful relationships around the country that went beyond the bonds of business. He worked for several companies, spending over a decade of his life with Siemens as a software architect and another twenty years working for NEC handling the technological side of healthcare. He was highly social and loved working with customers and his team on new projects while he traveled to new places. He would always bring back small gifts for his kids and wife anywhere he went to let them know he was thinking of them.

First and foremost, Howard was a father. He was our rock. He spent his life ensuring his family was supported and cared for. He instilled his love of adventure, travel, cooking, and music into his children. He took his family on journeys around the country, bringing them to Florida, California, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, and Nevada, just to list a few states. He instilled a love of Disney into his kids, even managing to acquire free cupcakes at Disneyland on their 50th anniversary. He also always found ways to bribe his kids to ride the scarier rides in the park, which we always hated at first but then wanted to ride over and over again.

Howard was always the first to encourage a trip somewhere new, spending hours researching places to visit and restaurants to eat at even if he had no intent of going on the adventure with us. He spoke fondly (and often) about his time abroad in Germany, and spent hours suggesting places to visit when I went. I’ll always remember how proud he was of his suggestions, and the prominent twinkle in his eye when we’d regale him with the tales of our adventures to his suggested locales.

Howard surpassed the internet when it came to dad jokes and dad knowledge. Any hurdle we had to go through, we knew we always had him on our side and full of more information than we needed. He was our biggest cheerleader and is dearly loved and missed by his family and friends.

The family suggests that memorial contributions be sent to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. 

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