All about Will Howard’s parents, Bob and Maureen Howard

Will Howard’s parents, Bob and Maureen Howard, have supported his college football journey every step of the way.

Will started his college football career at Kansas State University — about 18 hours away from his childhood home in Downingtown, Pa. He spent four seasons with the Wildcats and led his team to a Big 12 Championship victory in 2022 before transferring to Ohio State University in 2024.

“It helps that I’m a little closer to home now. I’m only six and a half hours away,” Will said under one press conference in January 2025 while talking about his family’s commitment to attending his games.

With the Buckeyes quarterback set to face the University of Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 20, his dad and mom are as supportive as ever.

Here’s everything to know about Will Howard’s parents, Bob and Maureen Howard.

Bob and Maureen worked in finance and the medical field

Bob spent his undergraduate years at Penn State University studying finance and earned his master’s degree in counseling psychology from Villanova University, per LinkedIn. Afterwards, he worked in real estate finance and eventually tried his hand at entrepreneurship, according to The Columbus Broadcast.

Meanwhile Maureen served a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Delaware and her master’s in physical therapy from Temple University in physical therapy. Today, she is a pediatric physical therapist who previously worked in the NICU center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Bob and Maureen share four children

Bob and Maureen became parents on September 24, 2001 with the arrival of Will. They later welcomed son Ryan and daughters Tori and Grace.

Ryan is currently a freshman at Kansas State, his older brother’s alma mater, where he plays football for the Wildcats.

They noticed Will’s athletic ability early on

Bob and Maureen knew they had an athlete on their hands when Will was a toddler.

In November 2024, NBC4 Columbus caught up with Will’s parents in the stands at an Ohio State game, where they opened up about the first time they were aware of his natural athletic ability.

“(Starting) when he was 2 years old (and) he was shooting baskets in our basement and making them, we just said, ‘There’s something a little different about him,'” Bob recalled.

Since then, they have helped foster his talents and watched him take up football. “It’s been a fun ride,” he added.

Bob and Maureen co-founded the Baby Merlin Company

In 2008, Bob and Maureen co-founded Baby Merlin Company after the mother of four invented the Magic Sleepsuit. The product, a baby garment that grew out of the traditional swaddling blanket, was created out of sheer necessity – she needed her infant Will to become a better sleeper.

“I put him down for a nap and he would wake up in 30 minutes,” she shared The Columbus Broadcast in September 2024. “I knew he needed more sleep. He was grumpy. I was grumpy.”

After family and friends tried the product themselves and loved it, Bob encouraged Maureen to get it on store shelves. They eventually launched the Baby Merlin Company, which took about 10 years to become a profitable business, and it was an all-hands-on-deck type of operation in the beginning.

“She would yell down the stairs, ‘We have a shipment,’ and we would all go outside and take all the boxes off the truck,” Will told the outlet about driving Baby Merlin out of their Pennsylvania home. “There would probably be over 100 sometimes.”

He continued: “For me, it was cool to see them push through. It taught me how to work hard and how to appreciate all the little things. It also brought us together as a family.”

In 2021, Bob and Maureen sold Baby Merlin to Perch – a Boston-based technology-driven trading company. However, Maureen remains the face of the company.

“Our kids saw it grow from an idea to a thriving business,” she said. “They helped unload shipments and break down pallets. It’s pretty cool that they saw it and helped. It was truly a family-run business, and we are super proud of that.”

Bob and Maureen go through a “roller coaster” of emotions when they watch Will play

Decades after realizing Will has a knack for sports, Bob and Maureen have watched their son grow into himself on the football field – involving many emotions.

“We (know) college football has ups and downs and you kind of have to be ready for the roller coaster ride,” Maureen told NBC4 Columbus.

Still, she tries to take her cues from her son.

“People always ask me if I get nervous. I kind of go after Will, if he’s calm and ready, I’m a lot calmer,” Maureen told the magazine, adding that Bob has a similar “calm exterior.”

She added: “But there’s some grinding going on inside. Don’t be fooled.”

Will leans on his family

During a January 2025 press conference, Will spoke to reporters about how he handled the transition from Kansas State to Ohio State.

“My support system is always my family. I lean on them for a ton of different things,” he said. “When I went out to Kansas State as an 18-year-old kid, (my mom and dad) came out there a lot. They helped me a lot.”

Will continued, “(Ohio State) was different. I’m older now. It felt more like a professional kind of move, (but) my family did an incredible job of helping me.”