OGDEN -- He wrote his own obituary.
"Kidney cancer finally got the best of me. God took me home on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011.
"I have lived with a foot in two worlds for too long anyway," Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Phil Howell, 60, wrote, referring to his upbringing in Hawaii in the obituary completed a week before his death.
"The other foot was in Ogden, where much of my adult life was spent having way too much fun in my law enforcement career, and raising my beloved family. Now I am free to roam where I will."
Lindquist Mortuary at 3408 Washington Blvd. was jammed to capacity Monday afternoon for Howell's funeral.
A cortege fronted by at least 45 motorcycle officers at 4 p.m. led north from Lindquist's on Washington and turned west onto Howell's beloved Historic 25th Street.
The procession then turned north at Wall Avenue to travel to 12th Street to end up at the sheriff's office for ceremonies there.
Howell's ashes will be scattered off the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
In the early 1980s, early in his career, Howell established the foot patrol on 25th Street, where he quipped the first goal was to "keep the hookers from running out to the cars parked at the stoplights."
Chris Zimmerman, former Roy police chief and a fellow detective at the Ogden Police Department, recalled when he first met Howell after being assigned to work with him on the vice squad.
Zimmerman said he was looking forward to working undercover on the then-still-notorious 25th Street, "but as soon as I walked down 25th Street with Phil, that was over."
"Phil knew everybody: the bartenders, the business owners ... the drunks knew Phil. He treated everybody with the same dignity and respect, even when he arrested them."
Longtime OPD pal Shane Minor, now an investigator with the Weber County Attorney's Office, between tears read Howell's obituary for the crowd at the funeral.
"I have lived a full and eventful life. I have loved and been loved. I have won most of my battles and lost a few as well. Did some profoundly good things as well as made some really dumb decisions.
"I have more proud memories than regrets, but am most grateful God put my wife, Cheri, in my path. She loved me fiercely, loyally and protected and cared for me through our entire marriage.
"There is a saying a man's greatness is measured by the greatness of his enemies. Unfortunately for me, the few enemies I made were small-minded and insignificant men. Ah well."
Howell retired from the Ogden Police Department in 1995 after 20 years and returned to Honolulu to help run the family business.
Retirement didn't work for him, however. After four years, he returned to Utah to work in the Weber County Sheriff's Office. He worked there until three weeks before his death.
"We had no idea until the end," sheriff's spokesman Capt. Klint Anderson said of Howell's battle with cancer. "He didn't want us to fret over him."
Howell spent 10 years in narcotics enforcement with OPD and the Weber Morgan Narcotic Strike Force, receiving a variety of awards, including OPD's Medal of Valor.
He helped develop the hostage negotiation unit with Ogden Metro SWAT and served as a negotiator and team leader for more than 20 years.
At the sheriff's office, he commanded the detective division and the Internet Crimes Against Children task force. He also served an eight-year term with the U.S. Naval Reserve as an intelligence specialist.
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