Thursday, July 16, 1998 | 11:13 a.m.
Those who used to frequent the old Camelot Health Spa on Maryland Parkway would recall the old attendant who kept the pool, spa and sauna areas really clean.
The white mustachioed man would get down on his knees and scrub the drains while towel-clad patrons walked about the clothing-optional pool areas. Few of them even knew his name.
A sure bet was that even fewer knew that Claude Howard was the spa's owner and a multimillionaire philanthropist who during his lifetime gave away as much as $20 million to local institutions including colleges, hospitals, police departments and area charities.
Claude I. Howard, who grew up in an orphanage and made his fortune by building more than 4,000 apartments in Southern Nevada during the last 45 years, died Sunday at Desert Springs Hospital. He was 92.
There will be no services for the one-time owner of the Camelot Health Spas, which had several Las Vegas locations in the 1970s and '80s. Instead, there will be a visitation from 4-7 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary-Downtown.
Howard's many contributions to the community include:
* Countless gifts to UNLV, which named its public safety building after him.
* $6 million to the University of Nevada Medical School, including $1 million for construction of the school's family medical center in Reno.
* A building worth $2 million to the Community College of Southern Nevada's Charleston Boulevard Campus.
* A building to the city of North Las Vegas that became its justice court.
* $300,000 for the Metropolitan Police Department to buy a helicopter and tens of thousands of dollars more for computer equipment for Metro's records bureau.
* $300,000 to renovate the pediatrics wing at the University Medical Center, then Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital.
* A cash gift that enabled Child Haven to expand its campus for abused and neglected children.
* Cash to purchase the North Las Vegas Police Department's radio system and renovate its jail.
* Cash to build a jail and police substation in Laughlin.
"As long as I make money, I'll give it away," Howard said in a brief public statement in 1986. Publicity shy, he rarely gave interviews.
Also, because many of Howard's gifts were given anonymously, the full scope of his generosity to the Las Vegas community may never be learned.
Born Oct. 28, 1905, in Bakersfield, Calif., Howard grew up in the a Kern County orphanage. He was on his own by age 15.
Howard's many early jobs included working in a butcher shop, in a hospital kitchen, at an accounting firm and in a fix-it shop.
During World War II, he was a civilian ship builder in San Francisco.
Howard got his real estate license in California, where he bought old buildings, renovated them and sold them. He moved to Las Vegas in 1953 and built apartments throughout the valley.
Throughout his life, Howard shunned the trappings of wealth. He often wore old sports shirts and discount store-type trousers, even to ceremonies where he was to receive awards for his generosity.
Howard is survived by a niece, Suzanne York, of Montrose, Calif.
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