- He is survived by three children: Joshua Houston of Honolulu, Hawaii; Corinne Houston Traugott and Gabrielle Houston Neville both of Santa Cruz, California.
- He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Drama from San Jose State University in 1956 in San Jose, California.
- His wife, a Japanese American (maiden name Wakatsuki), spent WWII at the internment camp in Manzanar, California. Her experiences there were the basis for his book "Farewell to Manzanar".
- He served three years in the Air Force with a NATO tactical bomber unit in Great Britain. While he was stationed there, he began writing stories. His first novel, "Between Battles", is about a pilot at a NATO air station in Britain.
- He received a master's degree in American literature at Stanford University in 1962.
- In addition to writing, he also earned money by playing and teaching guitar.
- Except for his years in the Air Force, he lived in California his entire life, mostly in Santa Cruz. California is the setting of most of his novels. Hawaii also inspired some of his fiction and non-fiction.
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