C. D. Howe - Early Years and Academic Career

Early Years and Academic Career

Howe was born and raised in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the United States. The Howes were well-regarded in the local community, and William Howe, Clarence's father, was involved in local politics. When not doing political work, William Howe was a carpenter and house builder. Clarence's mother, the former Mary Emma Hastings, was a teacher and the daughter of a prosperous farmer on whose farm Clarence spent his childhood summers.

Clarence did well in school, and upon his graduation from Waltham High School in 1903, he took the entrance examinations for Boston Tech, as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was commonly called. He passed, and after taking basic courses at the school, did advanced work in engineering. During the summers, he worked for J.B. Worcester & Co., a firm which had constructed much of the Boston subway system. While at school, he became a favourite pupil of Professor George Swain; after Howe graduated in 1907, Swain offered Howe a job as his teaching assistant. Howe accepted, although the young engineer felt that he should leave the Boston area to begin his career. Soon afterwards, Howe was offered an opportunity to become an engineering professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A popular story about Howe was that Swain had Howe and fellow engineer James Barker toss a coin to see who would get the job. Barker denied the tale later in life, stating he had no interest in the position and no one who knew Howe would be foolish enough to gamble with him, as Howe had shown himself to be uncommonly lucky. In any event, Howe had no better prospects in sight; unemployment among his classmates was high due to the Panic of 1907.

At the time, Dalhousie was a small university, with only 400 students, and members of the teaching staff had a heavy workload. Howe, at age 23, was little older than some of his students. He had little experience in the field, and on trips outside Halifax, he and his students would solve problems together. Howe's view was that any problem could be solved through common sense and hard work. Howe took his students to the countryside, where they camped, surveying and planning imaginary railroads. His student Denis Stairs, who would go on to lead the Montreal Engineering Company, said of Howe that by the time the camp ended, his students had great respect for him. Student C. J. Mackenzie, who Howe would later appoint to the National Research Council presidency, stated that Howe was not a brilliant lecturer, but that his presentations were always extremely clear. Howe later said of university education, "The worker at college continues to work, and becomes a successful engineer. The shirker continues to shirk, and gets nowhere." In addition to his own work, Howe found time for an active social life in Halifax, and considered marrying the sister of one of his students, but she had another husband in mind.

After Howe's first year in Halifax, engineering instruction of upperclassmen was taken away from Dalhousie and other universities in the province, and placed in a separate technical institute in which Howe had no role. Howe later stated that he liked Dalhousie, and had this change not occurred, he might have remained there as a professor. In 1913, however, a former colleague at Dalhousie, Robert Magill, who had recently been appointed chairman of the Board of Grain Commissioners, offered Howe the post of chief engineer, with responsibility for supervising the construction of grain elevators. Howe stated, "I've never seen one of those things in my life, but I'll take the job." The same year, he applied to become a British subject, as Canadians then were.