M. Howard Edwards African-American History and Culture Book Collection

  

Born and raised in Terre Haute, Indiana, Merle Howard Edwards (1936–2020) was a U.S. Army veteran who served three years in cryptographic analysis before graduating from Indiana State University in 1963. He built a distinguished career in purchasing and contracts management, serving in leadership roles for the Federal Government’s General Services Administration, the City of Palo Alto, and Kaiser Permanente as Regional Director of Materiel Management for Northern California.

Deeply committed to his community, Mr. Edwards served as President of the African American Genealogical Society (Bay Area), Treasurer of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (Gamma Chi Lambda Chapter), and a literacy tutor at the Hayward Public Library. Above all, Mr. Edwards was a committed and loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend.

Having been blessed with a very curious mind, he was an avid reader and collected over 1000 books over his lifetime of 83 years. An important part of his legacy lives on through the donation of his 400-book collection on African American history and culture to the Charles R. Drew University Library and the establishment of the M. Howard Edwards Memorial Scholarship for financially and educationally disadvantaged medical students at Charles R. Drew University.