Born- 12 March 1919 Cherryville, NC

Died- 1 April 2007 Cherryville, NC

Buried- Cherryville, NC City Memorial Cemetery

Married- Elizabeth Colcough Starnes

Marriage Date- 2 Jul 1949

Born- 18 April 1924

Died- 7 Nov 2001

Buried- Cherryville, NC City Memorial Cemetery

Howell with his older brother and Mother and Father

Howell had a great four years at North Carolina State University.

Cherryville “Iron Man” had soft spot for students

GERRY H0STETLER 

He was a tackle for the team that put little of' Cherryville on the football map in 1934. Did your daddy or grandpa ever tell you about the Cherryville Iron Men? 

Howell Wilfred Stroup of Cherryville, one of those illustrious Iron Men, died Sunday at Hospice at Wendover. He had just turned 88. 

There were 11 members on Cherryville High School's team — all players, no stars — who defeated Newton High School 12-6. They also beat Morganton's undefeated team, 6-2 to win the Western Conference championship. The caravan of 30 cars drove with horns honking and kids screaming all around the town. Darn right they were proud! 

From that beginning, Howell was a 1941 graduate of N.C. State University, where he was co-captain of the 1940 football team and was named Most Outstanding Student Athlete. He was inducted into the Cherryville Sports Hall of Fame in 1989. 

During World War II, he was an Army flight instructor and first lieutenant. He met and married Elizabeth Starnes in 1949, and after a honeymoon at Fontana Lake increased the family with sons Howell "Hank," Daniel, Matthew and daughter Margaret. Elizabeth died in 2001.

Howell put education first

Howell was concerned about the education of children. He served on the Cherryville school board for six years and on the Gaston County school board for eight. "He wanted to keep Cherryville High School from being consolidated with another school." said daughter Margaret Close. He also made sure the eighth and. ninth-grade girls, had a basketball team. "He kept telling everybody that you can't have a team for the boys and not for girls." 

Margaret said, “if not for him, we would not have had a team, until high school. I was the first girl in Cherryville to get a women's athletic scholarship to East Tennessee State University." 

Howell was a Scoutmaster for Cherryville Troop 323 for 35 years and earned the Silver Beaver Award in 1975. "Boy Scouts was such a huge part of his life," Margaret said. "Every year he and the older boys went on a 50 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail for five days." 

He received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor, in 2005. 

"Daddy was one of those people who was a character. We call it eccentric now, but in the past it was a ‘character’ " Margaret said.

He loved history

Howell, owner of Cherryville Nursery, was a member of the Cherryville Rotary Club and the Cherryville Historical Society, Her dad loved history and Civil War battlefields, Margaret said. 

"We all worked for him at the nursery as children," she said. "He expected as much out of us as he would himself. We learned very quickly to be responsible." 

 Howell had been one of the Cherryville Original New Year Shooters since about 1948. He used his English-made 1858 musket once used by an S.C. Confederate soldier. 

The group has been shooting and chanting on New Year's since 1775. Their chant ends with, "For the old year's gone and the New Year's come, and for good luck, we'll fire our guns.” 

This New Year, the shooters will be without Howell Stroup. But not, perhaps, without his spirit wishing all "good luck."