The C.D. Howe Memorial Foundation was founded in 1962 to provide a fitting and lasting memorial to the Rt. Hon. C.D. Howe and funded an engineering scholarship in his name for many years. In 2013, the Foundation established the C.D. Howe Scholarship Endowment Fund at the Association of Universities Canada to fund the National Engineering Scholarship Program in perpetuity.
The C.D. Howe Scholarship Endowment Fund supports scholarships to students enrolled in a bachelor of engineering program in a Canadian university.
Clarence Decatur Howe was born in 1886 in Waltham, Massachusetts. In 1907 he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and became Professor of Civil Engineering at Dalhousie University. In 1913 he was appointed Chief- Engineer of the newly formed Board of Grain Commissioners, located in Fort William, Ontario. In the same year Mr. Howe became a Canadian citizen. In 1916 he established the C.D. Howe Company, with its head office in Port Arthur, Ontario. The company soon achieved a worldwide reputation as a designer and builder of grain handling facilities. In 1935, Mr. Howe was elected to Parliament for the constituency of Port Arthur. He was to be a Member of Parliament for almost twenty-two years.
Mr. Howe held several major portfolios in the Government of Canada. As Minister of Transport from 1935 to 1940 he reorganized Canadian National Railways, founded Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada), and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As Minister of Munitions and Supply from 1940 to 1945 he planned and directed the massive wartime production of equipment and materials for Canada and its allies. Largely due to the success of this program, Canada entered the post-war period as a mature industrial nation. After the war, as Minister of Reconstruction and Supply and Minister of Trade and Commerce, Mr. Howe played the major role in developing and implementing policies which contributed to Canada's strong economic growth during that period.
At his death in 1960 the Toronto Star reported that "Howe's monument is everywhere. He was the chief builder of modern industrial Canada, and one of the greatest Canadians of all times." On the other side, La Presse stated that "un géant entre dans sa légende". Mr. Howe is recognized as one of Canada's greatest engineers.

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