Jack Howell walked into 216 Coworking in downtown Cartersville with a bulleted list of notes and five decades of stories to draw from, and by the end of the conversation, host Logan Lewis had traded jokes about trumpet solos and bee stings for a portrait of a man who has spent his entire adult life pouring into Bartow County. Howell is a former teacher, coach, principal, and district administrator who retired from Bartow County Schools in 1998, only to throw himself into new work as a charter member of the Etowah Jazz Society, the longtime public address voice of Cartersville High School football, a member of the Bartow Bee Club, and now director of the Harvest House food pantry at the Church at Liberty Square. Over the episode, Howell walked Logan through the path that took him from a small Alabama upbringing to becoming one of Cartersville's most familiar voices.
From Auburn's Marching Band to Coaching in Alabama
Howell grew up in Valley, Alabama, playing baseball, a little football, and marching in the school band before heading to Auburn University, where he majored in both physical education and music. "I majored in PE and music," he told Logan. "I always say, well, I can get along with the music folks and the athletic folks." For four and a half years he played trumpet in the Auburn band, riding the same buses to away games as the football team, cheerleaders, and majorettes. That dual background opened his first door: a coaching job back at Valley High School under Doug Lockridge, an old-school Alabama all-American who ran a tight ship. From there Howell coached at LaGrange High School before a connection through his father, a fellow educator, brought him north to take his first principal job in Bartow County.
Building a Career Across Bartow County's Schools
Howell's administrative career touched nearly every corner of the district — principal at Emerson, then Cass Elementary, then Adairsville Elementary, before returning to lead Cass Middle School during a rocky consolidation when Rytle, Kingston, Emerson, and Cloverleaf lost the community-identifying grade-school teams that had defined their small towns for generations. But the toughest, most rewarding job came at the county's alternative school for high schoolers who couldn't make it in a traditional classroom. He recalled a note left on his desk years later from a former student: "Mr. Howell, you and your staff at the alternative school, if you had not taken the time to really pour into me and then sit me down when I started going the wrong way and talk to me, I would not have been able to do what I'm doing today. And I am a certified physical therapist." Howell retired from education in 1998 — and didn't stay idle for long.
Becoming the Voice of Friday Nights at Weinman Stadium
Howell's path to the press box started with his own sons playing football, running track, and marching in the band at Cartersville High, which pulled him into the Touchdown Club. When longtime PA announcer Charlie Langford moved away right before a season, head coach Mike Yearwood turned to the club's president and said, "that looks like a job for the president of the touchdown club." Howell has been the voice of Cartersville football at Weinman Stadium ever since, calling home games during Trevor Lawrence's run through town and handling road broadcasts alongside Matt Santini. Mid-conversation, Logan pulled up a list of Cartersville's most famous names — Lawrence, NFL running back Ronnie Brown, Seinfeld's Wayne Knight, actress Chloe Grace Moretz — and Howell had a firsthand story for nearly every one, describing Lawrence simply as "really a good person" with a grounded family.
Trumpet Season and a Run-In With the Bees
Music never left Howell's life. Since 2002 he's been a charter member of the Etowah Jazz Society, founded with Dr. Saunders Jones, rehearsing every Thursday night and playing gigs across North Georgia. These days he's not the star of the section: "I used to be a lead trumpet player, but once I got into the jazz, I started playing the second and third." The conversation then turned to beekeeping. Howell's son Nathan got him started with the Bartow Bee Club, and Howell keeps a handful of hives of his own, a modest number next to fellow member Victor Hogwarts, who has run as many as 5,000. Logan countered with his own bee horror story — finding one resting inside his shirt on a walk and instinctively smacking it, "rest in peace to that bee" — while Howell, ever cautious, admitted he suits up fully every time, veil included, unlike the shorts-and-t-shirt beekeepers he sees on YouTube.
Harvest House and "Community Over Competition"
Today Howell directs Harvest House, the food pantry ministry at the Church at Liberty Square that grew out of an earlier program called Feed the Needy. He described one standout moment: a former client who, months after receiving help, left an envelope at the church office with a note and a $1,000 check — "please, thank you for being there when I did not have anything." When Logan asked how Harvest House avoids competing with other local pantries like Red Door, Tabernacle, and North Point, Howell pushed back on the framing entirely. "This community, we basically don't compete. We work together," he said, describing how the pantries coordinate delivery schedules from the Atlanta Community Food Bank so no one goes without. It's a mindset, he said, that starts with getting young people — including Cartersville football players who've spent a day carrying groceries at Harvest House — plugged into service early.
Listen to the Full Conversation
From Auburn's band hall to Weinman Stadium's press box to the shelves of Harvest House, Jack Howell's story is really the story of a man who never stopped showing up for his community. Logan closed with his usual rapid-fire round, where Howell named Tombstone his all-time favorite movie and picked a dream festival lineup pairing the Rolling Stones and Three Dog Night with jazz greats Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Hear the full conversation — including the homemaker mix-up and more on Cartersville's most famous names — on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
Listen to Episode #487
Catch the full conversation with Jack Howell on Your Morning Drive, wherever you listen.
