Abd al-Wahhab Hawmad

Abd al-Wahhab Hawmad was born in Aleppo in 1915 to father Mahmoud Hawmad. He studied law and criminology at the University of Paris and Arabic literature at the University of Damascus. He became a lawyer and a professor of law and criminology. He was also a founding member of the People's Party, a political party that advocated for democracy, decentralization, and union with Iraq. He was elected to the Parliament of Syria in 1947 and participated in writing the 1949 constitution. He was awarded the Syrian Republic Medal of Honor for Excellence for his efforts. He served as the Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Planning in various cabinets between 1951 and 1963. He was arrested by President Adib al-Shishakli in 1953 for his opposition to the military regime, but was released after Shishakli's overthrow in 1954. He was known for launching the largest foreign scholarship program in Syrian history, sending 300 students to American and European universities. He died in February 2002 at the age of 87.