Throughout Dan Howe’s lifetime, he wore many hats: College professor, newspaper columnist, editor, politician, community leader, husband and father. He also had an interest in preserving life history stories and was part of a group that met at Senior Friendship Centers in Sarasota, Florida, during the late 1970s. Brother William Geenen, founder and director of the facility, encouraged Life History Writing. Marguerite Hennigan recalled hearing about the writing course offered there. “In my whole life, I’d never gone off on my own to take a class,” she said. “I was nervous, but everyone made me feel welcome.” Hennigan eventually completed a book of stories, guided by Virginia Lee Jackson, one of the first instructors at Senior Friendship Centers.

Jackson advised her participants, “If you are daunted by writing your life history, write one story at a time. Soon you’ll have a book.” Indeed, dozens of her students completed and published their life history.

Along about 1984, Dan Howe approached the instructors with the idea of publishing the work of these writers in an annual magazine. He said, "If people take a ceramics class they end up with a product, something to show for their effort. Your students should have a showcase for their work, a magazine to preserve their stories to share with family and friends, a legacy for grandchildren.”

          Under Howe's leadership and funding DOORWAYS magazine was created. The volunteer staff and board of directors included Dan Howe, Pam Daniel, Sanford Bowen, Edith Gurlicks, Betty Roberts, Virginia Lee Jackson, and Jim Schriner, along with dozens of others. Howard Knerr, art teacher at Sarasota County Vocational Tech, and his students, provided the cover design and interior artwork (gratis). A doorway appeared on each cover, symbolizing “an outlet through which amateur writers can send their expressions into the tightly guarded world of print.”

          Howe’s death a few years later left his editorial board without an anchor, but not without inspiration and resources. Sandy Bowen said, “Dan’s contacts and his enthusiasm made DOORWAYS possible. Dan fully funded the first edition and was financially involved even when we had a primary sponsor. Dan kept us on track and made a planned publication possible each year. He left in trust the seed money for continued publication of DOORWAYS.”

          Leadership foundered for a while, with two editors at odds; one domineering and manipulative, the other intimidated and disorganized to the point of losing manuscripts. Both eventually relocated to other areas of the country. For a dozen or more years now Madonna Dries Christensen has been at the helm, aided by Barbara Celnar, Senior Friendship liaison, Contributing Editor Lindsay Peterson (the Tampa Tribune) and Contributing Editor E. P. Ned Burke, publisher of Yesterday’s Magazette and Writer’s Magazette.

          DOORWAYS has undergone many changes, but has never closed one door without opening another. After suspending publication of the print magazine, they introduced the annual Dan Howe Life History Writing Contest. Later, they closed that door and stepped through another—into the realm of electronic publishing. Now, in addition to the online publication, print copies are available for a nominal fee.

          For details on how to submit memoirs, see Submission Guidelines. The Doorkeeper awaits your knock on the door.