Mr. Howell is actually a billionaire and one of the world's richest men, inherited from his father. He met his wife "Lovey" at Harvard and married her in 1944. He remembers it as the day Consolidated General jumped 17 points. Although they've been married 20 years, they both admit that the last 5 years haven't been much of a picnic. But still, Thurston can be remarkably sentimental and romantic with Lovey.

Known as the Wizard of Wall Street, he has been convicted 6 times on antitrust suits, and investigated every year for income tax evasion. He owns up to 12 corporations, and as chairman of the board, has 5,000 employees and an office on the second floor.

He prides himself as being a Harvard graduate and a registered Republican. He has homes in Palm Beach, Paris, Newport, New York, Monaco, and all 50 states. Thurston has 20 suitcases just for himself.

Howell displays little tact, blames the Skipper for the shipwreck, and is always trying to break the castaways' laws and bribe others. He is sneaky, untrustworthy, conniving, greedy and corrupt. Yet, when it comes to the lives of his fellow castaways, he's always exceptionally generous and caring.

He refuses to do manual labor, preferring instead to hire Gilligan to work for him. He usually spends his day relaxing with his wife Lovey on the bamboo lounge chairs, sipping tropical drinks, and listening to the stock market report on the radio (which is his). He also enjoys playing golf with bamboo and seashell clubs and reading his only copy of the Wall Street Journal every day. He finds it comforting that the market never goes up or down.