OTTAWA — Internationally-known butterfly expert and artist Bill Howe has died at the age of 81. Howe, Kansas artist of the year in 1987, illustrated and authored several books about butterflies and moths, including the monumental Doubleday book “Butterflies of North America.” He had done several paintings and murals, most of them butterflies and moths. His paintings are displayed across the nation and world including the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History. His murals include the restored mural in the old middle school and what is now Washburn Towers, and in the Mexican Presidential Palace. He graduated from Ottawa University and attended the Kansas City Art Institute and the West Coast Institute of Arts and Crafts. Howe was a 1947 graduate of Ottawa High School. The high school had named him to this year’s Wall of Honor for distinguished graduates and he was to be honored in September.
