Howard J. Conkling, who organized the Excelsior School of Business in Utica in 1915, has since served as its principal and may well be proud of the success and prestige which the institution has won under his efficient direction. His birth occurred in Grant, Herkimer county, New York, on the 9th of January, 1884, his parents being Morris G. and Henrietta Conkling. He is a worthy representative of the honored old Conkling family. His grandfather, Henry S. Conkling, and the famous Senator Roscoe Conkling were first cousins.
Following his graduation from the high school at Holland Patent, Howard J. Conkling attended the Newport summer school and subsequently pursued a course in the Tamblyn School of Penmanship in Kansas City, Missouri. He is also a graduate of the Utica Business Institute, which is now out of existence. From 1903 until 1912 Mr. Conkling devoted his attention to the profession of teaching as an instructor in the public schools, while during the succeeding three years he was employed as an accountant by the Iroquois Auto Top Company of Utica. It was in 1915, as above stated, that he organized the Excelsior School of Business, of which he has since been the principal and in the conduct of which his well-directed efforts have been attended with gratifying success. The school maintains stenographic, shorthand and bookkeeping departments, and students are given individual instruction by expert teachers.
On the 23d of January, 1907, Mr. Conkling was united in marriage to Miss Jennie O. Remonda, daughter of Theodore C. Remonda of Morehouseville, Hamilton county, New York. Mr. Conkling's sincere and helpful interest in community affairs is manifest in his membership in the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce in Utica, while fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to Central City Lodge No. 68.