After Dee left Dee Howard Company (DHC), he founded River City Products, Inc. (RCP) to focus on his other engineering passion, automotive engineering. Specifically, to improve highway safety by making heavy over-the-road vehicles directionally stable, less fatiguing, and safer to drive. Dee licensed RCP to manufacture and sell the Howard Precision Steer Wheel Control System, which is still in service on over 3,000 heavy over-the-road buses, trucks, and recreational vehicles that have collectively driven hundreds of millions of in-service miles.

Due to failing health, Dee retired from RCP in 2006 and passed away on 12 February 2009. As one final tribute to Dee’s engineering genius, the final patent was issued by the US Patent & Trademark Office [No.7.806,419] to Durrell U. ” Dee” Howard on 5 October 2010.