William Ross Howard III

William Ross Howard III was born on October 31, 1981, in North Carolina. He was a talented musician who played the drums and guitar. He studied music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in the music industry. During his time in Nashville, Howard worked as a session musician and collaborated with some of the biggest names in country music, including Tim McGraw and Luke Bryan. He also worked as a songwriter and had several of his songs recorded by artists such as Billy Currington, Eli Young Band, and Jake Owen. In 2014, Howard was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called cholangiocarcinoma, which affects the bile ducts in the liver. Despite undergoing extensive treatment, Howard passed away on March 6, 2018, at the age of 36. In honor of Howard's legacy, his family established the William Ross Howard III Fund for Rare Cancer Research, which supports research into rare forms of cancer at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville.