Howard Douglas McCurdy, Master in Surgery OOnt is a retired Canadian civil rights activist, politician and university professor
Education
Born in London, Ontario, McCurdy studied at the University of Western Ontario, where he received a Bachelor of Arts, and later at Assumption University, where he received a Bachelor of Science. He was awarded a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in microbiology and chemistry from Michigan State University.
Career
McCurdy has also served for a time as Michigan State University"s president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), which he founded. In 1959 he joined the Biology Department at Assumption College (later the University of Windsor) and became the first person of African descent to hold a tenure track position in a Canadian university. He was Department Head from 1974 to 1979.
In 1976-1980 he founded and was President of the Canadian College of Microbiologists.
McCurdy authored more than 50 scientific papers and served on the editorial boards of Bacteriological Reviews and the Canadian Journal of Microbiology. In 1967-1968 he was President of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
In 1962 he founded the Guardian Club a civil rights organization to fight racial discrimination in Windsor. McCurdy"s speech at the founding convention is credited with choosing the name New Democratic Party.
In 1980 he was elected alderman in the city of Windsor and served until elected as the New Democratic Member of Parliament for the riding of Windsor Walkerville in the federal election of 1984, to become Canada" second black Member of Parliament. In the 1988 election he was reelected in the renamed riding of Windsor— Saint Clair, where he served until his defeat in the 1993 federal election.
He was also a candidate for the party leadership in the 1989 leadership convention which selected Audrey McLaughlin. McCurdy campaigned for the Ontario New Democratic Party nomination in Windsor—Sandwich in the build-up to the 1995 provincial election, but was unexpectedly defeated by Arlene Rousseau. In 2003, McCurdy supported Bill Blaikie"s campaign for NDP leader.