Air Force Museum of Alberta

44 C.D. Howe

C.D. Howe

"The unselfish application of his engineering skills and qualities of leadership and determination as a servant of the Nation, and more especially his successful efforts to give birth to a national airline and create a viable aircraft industry, have been of outstanding benefit to Canadian aviation."

C.D. Howe

"The unselfish application of his engineering skills and qualities of leadership and determination as a servant of the Nation, and more especially his successful efforts to give birth to a national airline and create a viable aircraft industry, have been of outstanding benefit to Canadian aviation."

C.D. Howe

Clarence Decatur Howe graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1907 and came to Canada as a professor of civil engineering at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1935, Howe was elected to the House of Commons and was later named Minister of Railways and Canals and Minister of Marine. He united both departments into one Department of Transport.

He also fashioned the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from the Canadian Radio Commission and founded the nation's first transcontinental airways system, Trans-Canada Air Lines.

During the Second World War, Howe was also responsible for most of the production of military aircraft and the chain of airports he established proved invaluable to the training of Allied aircrew. After the war, he ensured that government-owned companies were turned over to private enterprise to maintain a viable Canadian aircraft industry.

Born: 15 Jan 1886, Waltham, Massachusetts
Died: 31 Dec 1960

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