U.S. Congressman. He served as a conservative Republican in the United States House of Representatives from the 6th Congressional District of North Carolina from 1985 to 2015. Serving thirty years, he was the State of North Carolina's longest-serving Republican U.S. congressman. He ran as a unopposed candidate in 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2002. Born John Howard Coble, he attended Appalachian State University before serving in the Coast Guard for five years, remaining in the reserves for an additional 18 years as an officer. Resuming his education, he studied at Guilford College in Greensboro, receiving a history degree before he earned a law degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an insurance agent before having a 20-year career as a practicing attorney. In 1973 Governor James Holshouser appointed him as State Secretary of Revenue for four years. In 1979 he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, serving until he was elected to go to Washington D.C. He announced his retirement in 2013 and would not be a candidate in the next election. With North Carolina's tobacco crop, he voted in favor of bills to protect agriculture. He took a hardline position against illegal drugs and had Federal employees tested for drug use. He was a member of the Tea Party Caucus. He supported the U.S. military community. He was one of two congressmen who pledged to decline a Federal pension and supported laws to reform the pensions. He sponsored laws to ensure digital copyrights and making it a criminal offense for stealing a digital copyright, even for nonprofit. He made it unlawful to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive any firearm" that is not detectable by a walk-through metal detector or "of which any major component, when subjected to inspection by x-ray machines commonly used at airports, does not generate an image that accurately depicts the shape of the component." He was known for his plaid jackets and the Coble's well known symbol, a sharp pencil. He never married. His nephew established the J. Howard Coble Scholarship Fund in the memory of former congressman Howard Coble to be given to high school graduating seniors of high moral character and from a military family, a veteran or ROTC student.