Maria Augusta Howard

5/24/37 - 3/1/16

Maria was born in Neptune, New Jersey to Rina and Darius Garbarini on May 24, 1937. Raised most of her life in Red Bank, N.J., she attended St. James Grammar School and Red Bank Catholic High School. Maria obtained her Bachelor of Arts Degree from The College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown, New Jersey where she majored in Spanish and graduated with honors.

After graduation from college Maria worked in the travel industry and kept her interest in her major by tutoring Spanish and French for local schools. While interested in education, her true passion was the theater, not only as a fan, but also in participating in the theater production. It was at this time, performing and producing shows for Special Services for the U. S. Army at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey that she met her future husband, Jack. On October 28, 1961, Maria and Jack were married and spent their honeymoon returning to Jack’s home in California.

Upon their move to Los Angeles, Maria resumed working for a couple of years in the travel business. In 1963, they had their first child, Carla. In 1968, Gianna was born and in 1971 Tina was born. During these early years Maria pretty much was a stay-at-home mom. As the girls got into school, Maria wanted to continue her love for teaching and in drama. She ran drama programs for the L.A. City Department of Recreation and Parks. Maria wrote, produced and directed special theatrical material for a youth drug and alcohol prevention program. In the mid 80’s, Maria went on staff at Chaminade College Preparatory Middle School teaching Spanish, French , Drama and running their drama department. Later she became Chairperson for the Foreign Language and Fine Arts Department. Besides this, she and another teacher at Chaminade, Michael Hart, became writing partners resulting in the publishing of two books, “A Shaman’s Crystals” and “Into the Dark”. In 2008, Maria retired from Chaminade and received Chaminade’s Founders Award and received a proclamation from the City of Los Angeles for her 26 years of service.

We cannot complete her saga, without mentioning the love she had for all animals. At one point we had three dogs, two cats, a desert turtle, rabbits, mice, hamsters and two chickens.

Besides her husband, and their daughters, Maria is survived by her grandchildren, Juliana and Callie Drozd, Devin and Aidan Larsen; sons-in-law, Robert Drozd, Todd Larsen and Jonathan Fillingham. And of course, the other love of her life, her dog, Dude. Not to mention all the children she gave her love of the theater.

A Celebration of Life service will take place on Saturday, March 5, 2016, 4:00P.M., at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home, 3150 Loma Vista Road, Ventura.

In lieu of flowers we are asking for donations to be made to the Teenage Drama Workshop Scholarship Fund at CSUN. Donations can be made online at www.csun.edu/tadw or you can send a check to TADW - CSUN Foundation Scholarship Account 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8320. Please indicate Maria Howard in the memo section of your check.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to TedMayrFuneralHome.com