The award is bestowed on individuals whose extraordinary personal contributions have added to the success of GITA. The presentation was made at GITA’s Annual Conference 29, being held April 23-26, 2006, at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla.

  Howard was a founding father of the association. His motivation was his awareness that a new technology was emerging, which had the potential to make the world a better place by making essential services businesses more efficient. He knew that the obstacles to success were so great that the best minds from geography and information technology disciplines needed to share their knowledge so end users could create practical solutions.

 Howard held many positions within the association, including director at large, long range planning committee chairman, conference chairman, executive management symposium chairman, and blue ribbon committee member at large.

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The mission of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is to provide excellence in education, information exchange and applied research on the use and benefits of geospatial information and technology in business, utility and government applications worldwide. Visit GITA on the Web at www.gita.org.