Howard A Nielson's Obituary
Howie “Wicked Fingers” Nielson
Howard Anton (Howie) Nielson, a second generation Connecticut Yankee, was born in New Haven December 31, 1925, and raised in Hamden.
During WWII, Howie served as a celestial navigator with Naval Air Transport Squadron VR-11 in the Asiatic-Pacific theater and was discharged with the rank of Lieutenant junior grade.
Under the GI Bill, Howie studied electrical engineering Yale University. On a blind date, he met, and later married, his sweet Jean Elizabeth Tingley of Milford, in 1949. Jean and Howie have two children, Melissa Audrey and Peter Hilton, four surviving grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
Howie enjoyed a rewarding career in the business-machines industry with NCR, during which he and Jean established family residences in Milford CT, Dayton OH, Kansas City MO, Denver CO, Phoenix AZ and Escondido CA. He served in NCR’s Field Engineering Division, working in field and regional offices, an R&D facility, and corporate headquarters, achieving the level of Assistant Manager, Field Engineering, for the United States and Canada. Dayton neighbors remember Howie whistling on his daily walk to work at NCR.
Mid-life, Howie began and enjoyed a second career, in show business, playing jazz banjo as a side man in traditional Dixieland bands around Southern California under the no doubt famous show-biz stage name, Howie “Wicked Fingers” Nielson. Howie will probably be best remembered by traditional Dixieland jazz fans for his enthusiastically happy tune-end laugh, his Cheshire Cat grin and his flamboyant banjo-back “APPLAUSE” sign.
Once retired from NCR, Howie launched several concurrent volunteer careers: as the fix-it guy at the Elizabeth Hospice Thrift Shop, and then the Saint Vincent De Paul Thrift Shop; with Jean at the Escondido Humane Society; and as the internationally-known and recognized Small Band Music Archivist with America’s Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Howie’s name to the Youth Music Education Fund of America’s Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society, PO Box 880387, San Diego CA 92168-0387
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