Howes make gift to ACCF in honor of family
January 28, 2025
ASHLAND – Ashland was truly a special community for Joyce Lutz Howe to be raised. Joyce credits her family and the quality of life she experienced growing up in Ashland as reasons to have recently made an honorary gift to the Ashland County Community Foundation.
Joyce and her husband, Roger’s gift of $1 million will be used to establish the Joyce Lutz Howe Fund, in honor of the Howard and Eunice Decatur Lutz family, as a significant component of the foundation’s Community Grants program, meeting the needs of dozens of local nonprofit agencies each year.
“My parents were civic-minded contributors to the Ashland community,” Joyce said. “This is an extension of their beliefs and appropriately so honors them, as well as my sister and brother. Roger and I both believe ‘giving back’ is important and appropriate.”
Joyce’s father was a prominent local attorney and former Ashland mayor, and her mother was a schoolteacher. Her family includes one sister, the late Jayne Shipman, and brother, Edwin.
“Ashland was a wonderful city for me, my sister and my brother to be raised – very nice people, supportive philanthropic community citizens and firms made it a special place for our entire Howard and Eunice Lutz family,” she said.
Joyce recalled Ashland also was a place where she received an excellent education with inspirational teachers and uplifting activities.
“This was coupled with the building of long-lasting friendships with many contemporaries,” she said.
Joyce grew up to become the co-valedictorian of Ashland High School in 1953. She went on to study and major in fine arts with a graphics specialty at Miami University, where she graduated with honors in 1957.
After marrying Roger, of Wakeman, they raised four children: their late daughter, Barbara, Karen Howe Gingold (Dr. Michael), Mary Howe Davis (Palmer) and son Edwin (Juliet). They now enjoy being grandparents to nine grandchildren.
Art has played a large role in Joyce’s life. Beyond her personal art career specializing in watercolor, mixed-media and oil painting, Joyce threw her support behind the arts in a variety of ways. She was a docent for the Cincinnati Museum of Art, served as a member of its board of trustees, and had long been a supporter of the Taft Museum, The Contemporary Arts Center and Arnoff Center for the Arts. Joyce, who is particularly recognized for her work with watercolors, has had work shown and sold in galleries in Cincinnati, Chicago, Petosky, MI, and Boca Grande, FL.
Joyce and Roger have also given back to Miami University. Their gifts to the school have created the Howe Writing Initiative in the Farmer School of Business and the Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence, for the purpose of elevating students’ writing skills. The Howes believe nothing in education is more important than developing a clear, concise and persuasive writing ability.
Though Joyce has lived in Maine, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, before settling in Cincinnati, she has never forgotten Ashland.
“This gift is an expression of appreciation to Ashland for my good fortune of having been a part of it during the formative years,” Joyce said Joyce and her husband chose to direct their gift to the Community Grants program because they were attracted to its purpose. These grants serve to assist area non-profit organizations and their clientele in a variety of ways, with application periods twice annually.
Recent gifts to the fund, such as the Howes’, enable more organizations to meet the ever- growing needs of the Ashland Community. The Howes are among nearly 60 donors that enable distributions from the foundation’s Community Grants fund.
“We are extremely grateful to our donors like the Howes, who help make the vision of these nonprofits a reality,” said Jim Cutright, ACCF President/CEO. “Our donors understand and appreciate that this type of fund gives our foundation’s trusted staff and board members the ability to always be meeting current community needs, by making grants to great local programs and projects every year. At the same time, each individual fund can bear the donor’s own name, or the name of an honoree, to create a lasting legacy.”
Nonprofit organizations may apply for Community Grants by March 1 at www.ashlandforgood.org/grants.
Individuals, families and businesses interested in setting up a named fund to benefit the Community Grants program may contact Cutright at (419) 281-4733 or cutty@ashlandforgood.org.
About Ashland County Community Foundation: Ashland County Community Foundation advances philanthropy and improves the quality of life in Ashland County by connecting people who care with causes that matter. ACCF has awarded more than $35 million in scholarships, grants and distributions.