Howze originally aspired to become a doctor and studied chemistry, biology, and physics.
[1] He later entered the seminary for the Josephites, studying at Epiphany Apostolic College in upstate New York.
After expressing a renewed interest in the priesthood, Howze was accepted to study for the priesthood at Christ the King Seminary at St. Bonaventure University in New York (receiving his Doctor of Divinity in 1959), and was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh on May 7, 1959.
He was consecrated to the episcopate on January 28, 1973, by Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, with Bishops Harold Robert Perry, S.V.D., and Joseph Bernard Brunini serving as co-consecrators.
He retired June 6, 2001, and died January 9, 2019, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, at the age of 95.