Individual Details

Death

Houghton Furr, 85, Lincoln, died Wednesday (3/15/06) at his home. Born in Lincoln (10/6/20) to Archie M. and Mattie Belle (Houghton) Furr. As a child he enjoyed reading, music and his bicycle. He took piano lessons every day before attending Prescott School. Houghton was fortunate to travel the world with his widowed grandmother, Nellie Houghton, as her escort in the late 1930s. He attended Irving Junior High and graduated from the former Teachers College High School. In 1936 he started at the University of Nebraska, where he majored in math and French. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He lettered in swimming and track and also wrestled. He gave his first of many organ concerts at First-Plymouth Church in April of 1937. Upon his graduation from the university, Houghton went on to Harvard Law School. He graduated in 1943, second in his class. While in law school he was elected editor of the Harvard Law Review, despite seldom attending due to his interest in learning to fly airplanes. Also, he developed a new interest in consuming seafood, a rarity in Nebraska. He attended numerous music concerts, where he developed further interest in playing the organ as well as the piano, his real love. As a concert pianist he won Best Artist at a Lincoln Symphony contest in 1946, and his good friend Robert Anderson won the following year, and the two performed a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. He married Marion Jones in 1941 at Sheridan Lutheran Church. They had a son, Houghton Jr., in 1942, and a daughter, Lyn, in 1945. Marion died in 1946. Houghton joined the Army Air Corps in 1943. His job was teaching pilots to fly - in French! He was stationed at Turner Field in Georgia, then in Tennessee and then to Florida, where he received his Navy wings. After returning to Lincoln he was a law professor, teaching constitutional law at the university and also teaching vocal music for seven years. In 1955 Houghton was asked to join the Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company as secretary-treasurer, retiring 36 years later as vice president and treasurer. He was an avid hunter and fisherman and played squash for many years. Houghton was active in many civic organizations including the United Way. He donated blood regularly and exercised often at the YMCA. He was an active member of "the Club."Houghton performed as a pianist for the Lincoln Symphony in 1963 and served on its board in 1965-66. In 1981 he met Joan Owen, who was visiting from New York. The two were married on Jan. 8, 1982, at Saint Paul United Methodist Church in Lincoln. Houghton was the church organist at Saint Paul's for 40 years. Houghton and Joan continued to travel, mostly to France, and to revisit many exotic locations throughout the world. Houghton Furr was in every way a most spectacular human being. Survivors: wife, Joan; son, Houghton A. Furr Jr., Lincoln; daughter, son-in-law, Lyn and Wilf Jones, Morriston, Fla.; granddaughter, spouse, Brittany and Bruce Kitchen II; great-grandchildren, Bailey and Dylan McAllister; sister-in-law, Marjorie Woods, Lincoln. Services: 10 a.m. Monday, Wyuka Funeral Home Chapel, 3600 O St. Memorials to Capital Humane Society, 2320 Park Blvd., Lincoln, 68502.
Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, March 16, 2008