Howard Thieme - A long time resident of Needham died October 23, 2006. He leaves his wife Anna Louise (Graham) and five sons; Donald, Lee, Kevin, Scott and Gary. Howard was born in Chicago, IL where he learned to fly at nineteen and bought a Star Cavalier. Now a rare aircraft, it has been recently restored and is on display in a New York air museum. Howard enlisted in the Army as a Private in 1941 and rose to 1st Lt. in the Combat Engineers. He landed at Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion in 1944 and commanded a platoon in the 294th Combat Engineers to the Hurtgen Forest Campaign where he was disabled. Upon discharge, he became a Registered Professional Engineer with Stone and Webster Engineering, retiring in 1975. His many assignments overseas took him to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Canada and India for projects involving chemical and electric power plant construction. In the states, he worked on the earliest nuclear power plants in New England. Locally, he was best known for his participation in the Massapoag Yacht Club in Sharon where he was elected Commodore and for winning an international competition in the Falcon Class. He was very active as the scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 9 in Needham. Howard and Louise enjoyed camping, hunting and fishing with their children as they grew up. Later in life they enjoyed extensive travel to Europe with several return trips to Bermuda. He was 88 years old. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to a graveside service on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 1:00 PM at St. Mary's Cemetery, Needham.