At the time, Howard was a football player for Brigham Young University (BYU).

After a few semesters at BYU, Ringwood left to serve as a missionary for the LDS Church in South Korea.

Prior to becoming a general authority, Ringwood was a businessman who spent 14 years as a vice president with Huntsman Chemical Corporation, living in Houston, Virginia Beach and Australia.

[1] In 2000, he left Huntsman Chemical and returned to Salt Lake City where he served as president of Bear Creek Foods, president of Lofthouse Foods, and the chief operating officer of Close To My Heart, a scrapbooking company.

He spoke at the LDS Church's general conference in 2009 about the willingness to believe, "Obedience will bring soft hearts and an easiness to believe in the word of God.