Clarence "Sandy" Howell was a young boy when his mother, Katharine, bought a ramshackle log cabin, nestled in the woods just east of Illinois Highway 83 in Bensenville and converted it into a teahouse that opened in 1932.

It was the height of the Depression and meals could be purchased for less than a dollar. On the land next to the restaurant, nearby residents would pick flowers and berries and sell them at roadside stands to help make ends meet.

"It was a Depression measure," Howell, who literally grew up in the restaurant that would become known as Plentywood Farm, told the Tribune in 1988. "All the truck farming was out here — fresh vegetables, Harvard beets, chickens."

In the years that followed, Plentywood Farm expanded its menu and grew into a sprawling 7-acre complex with a banquet room and five distinct dining areas, one designed by a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright.

It took on the look of a Wisconsin tourist lodge with beamed ceilings, teakwood floors, wood-burning fireplaces and 8-foot-tall picture windows overlooking a bucolic setting of pine trees, gardens and a meandering creek. Small shops were later installed to sell locally grown specialty foods and handmade goods.

Plentywood Farm became a popular venue for everything from a nice dinner to a wedding reception for 250 guests. And throughout its 65-year history, the restaurant, which closed in 1998, put a premium on reasonable prices.

"Dad didn’t have it in him to raise prices any more than he absolutely had to," his daughter Suzanne Murin said. "That just wasn’t him."

Howell, 92, died of pancreatic cancer Jan. 25 at his home in Beacon Hill, a senior living facility in Lombard, his family said.

"He was a fantastic guy, like a father to me in many ways," said Senate President John Cullerton, who for eight years worked as a waiter at Plentywood Farm, beginning at age 16. "Working for Sandy helped pay my way through college. He was a great businessman, but he was an even better person."

Howell often provided jobs for military veterans and those down on their luck. At various points, he employed up to 140 people at his restaurant.

In the early 1980s, after learning about the plight of struggling Inuit people in Newfoundland and their efforts to find a market for their catches of arctic char, Howell toured their fishery and played an important role in helping them seal a deal with several Chicago food purveyors.

"Using his connections, he brought these groups together and created business arrangements that benefit both sides and still exist today," said longtime friend and retired businessman Marty Pittman, who accompanied Howell on the fishery tour. "Without Sandy, none of this would have happened."

Born in Oak Park and raised in Elmhurst, Howell attended York Community High School. He joined the Marines at 17 and for three years served in the Pacific Theater, where he fought in the Battle of Okinawa, during World War II, his family said.

He returned home and along with his brother, Pete, began working at Plentywood Farm, initially as a cook using old family recipes, and later doing his own twist on traditional chicken and beef dishes, while expanding the menu to include fresh fish and seafood.

He stepped away from the restaurant’s day-to-day activities in the early 1990s but gathered with his family for one last meal before it closed.

"He was kind of a tough guy, a former Marine who didn’t talk a lot, but you always knew where his heart was," Murin said.

Howell is also survived by his wife, Marion; a son, Robert; two other daughters, Sally Reindl and Sharon Saunders; nine grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Services were held.

Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter.

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