McMinnville resident and native James Wayne (Jim) Howard, 72, died Feb. 1 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.A journeyman tool and die maker, an engineer and surgical technologist, he was a member of McMinnville First Baptist Church. He worked on the NASA Apollo space project with some of his craft placed on display in the Smithsonian Aerospace Institute in Washington D.C. He retired from Vanderbilt Hospital where he had been employed as a surgical technologist.He had a wide variety of interests including traveling abroad, missions to Brazil, learning to play the cello, cross country motorcycle riding, swimming laps, and the half-ironman. He was a pilot and participated in numerous War Bird air shows and built experimental aircraft.