At the age of 18, he became a reporter for the Moncton Daily Times and in 1940 he joined the Canadian Press service in Halifax, sending dispatches across the country with the dateline "from an East Coast Canadian Port" to suit the censors at the start of World War II.
He moved to Ottawa when the war ended and served as a reporter in the Parliamentary Press Gallery for CP between 1945 and 1953.
In 1959, he accepted a position as managing editor for the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest, which he held for the next decade.
How is the author of several books, including the regimental history of the 8th Canadian Hussars (1964), Canada's Mystery Man of High Finance, about Izaak Walton Killam, and KC (co-authored with Ralph Costello), a biography of New Brunswick industrialist K. C. Irving.
He served as the director of the university extension services for some time before moving to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, where he completed several books.