It is difficult to estimate the impact of a scholar. Conventional metrics such as citation counts, h-indexes, publications in top-tier journals, and federal grants all provide some objective indication of scholarly impact, but these indices fail to capture the holistic and historical context of a scholar’s influence on the development and emergence of entire fields of inquiry. As his student and colleague, I believe that Matthew Owen Howard, PhD, exerted a singular influence on social work research, and his scholarly efforts helped give rise to a new and critically important field of scientific investigation: the study of mindfulness as a treatment for addiction.