Robert Jared Bliss Howard was born in 1859, in Montreal, Quebec, the only son of Dr. Robert Palmer Howard (1823-1889), Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Medicine, McGill University.

He was a physician. He studied at McGill University (B.A., 1879) where he won Osler's prize for excellence in the primary examination in 1881 and graduated with the Holmes Gold Medal in 1882 (M.D.). He furthered his studies at London Hospital, in Berlin, Vienna, and Leipzig. In 1883, he was Demonstrator of Anatomy and Surgery at McGill University, Assistant Surgeon and Pathologist at Montreal Hospital, and Surgeon to the Dispensary. During the South African War (1899-1902), he worked at the Guards' Hospital, Rochester Row, London. Later he practised in London as a laryngologist. During World War I (1914-1918), he organized and supervised the Mount Royal Hospital for Officers at Bath, and also worked at the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth, for which he was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He became a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in 1884.

In 1888, he married Margaret Charlotte Smith (2nd Baroness Strathcona and Mount Royal) (1854–1926). He died on January 9, 1921, in London, England.

Robert Howard was born in Montreal around 1851 and spent his childhood there. By 1871, he had moved to St. Jean, Quebec. He graduated in Medicine from McGill University in 1874, with a M.D., C.M. degree.

He kept an office at the corner of McCumming and Lemoine streets in St. Jean, where he practiced medicine as an allophatic doctor. His Irish father, Henry, was also a doctor and was superintendent at L'Hospice des Aliénés, an asylum and, according to an 1870 newspaper, Henry had invented a system for ventilating apartments.

He had been ill for several years before his early death in 1888, having gone to Europe for his health.

Dr. Howard, of Montreal, received his medical degree from McGill University in 1848. Following graduation, he studied in Dublin, London, Edinburgh, and Paris. He returned to Montreal in 1849 and commenced medical practice. In 1851, he began teaching Chemistry at St. Lawrence School of Medicine. Dr. Howard joined the staffs of the McGill Faculty of Medicine and the Montreal General Hospital in 1852. In 1858, he was elected Chairman of the Medical Board of the General Hospital, a post he held for thirty years. By 1860, he had achieved one of the senior chairs at McGill, the Professorship of the Theory of Medicine, which he held until his death. Dr. Howard served as Dean of the Faculty from 1882-1889. William Osler was a pupil of Dr. Howard's during his studies at McGill. Osler never forgot his debt to Dr. Howard and he never lost an opportunity to express his admiration and affection for his former teacher. When the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building was officially opened in 1966, its largest amphitheatre was named in memory of Robert Palmer Howard.