Howard J.Harden Jr., who won two Emmys and various other awards as director of KGO's old AM Show (later Good Morning, San Francisco), died at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco on Saturday, February 8, 1997 after a series of heart attacks. He was 66 years old.

"He was most proud of the AM Show," said his son, Mark, a Denver newspaperman and former Examiner editor. "He saw it as a news show, not just a talk show or entertainment show, but a news show putting important issues and important personalities before the public in an unvarnished way."

A native of Scotland Neck, N.C., Howard started in the then-fledgling TV business at WTAR in Norfolk, Va. After a stint in the Air Force, he came to San Francisco and worked briefly at KPIX before going to KGO, where he stayed until his retirement in 1992.

In the early years, he was a floor manager for programs by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Gypsy Rose Lee and Count Marco; his directorial debut was on the original Romper Room with Miss Nancy. He also worked on the station's documentary show "Golden Gate Story" and the entertainment show "Luau."

A graduate of Old Dominion College in Norfolk and the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts in Baltimore, he was in one of the first groups in 1965, to earn a masters degree in radio and TV at San Francisco State University.

Since his retirement, he had done freelance TV work at KCSM at the College of San Mateo and was a volunteer docent at the Filoli Estate in Woodside.

Howard was a longtime member of the Directors Guild of America, the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' having been inducted in 1994, and the Bay Area Broadcast Legends.