John Alexander Douglas McCurdy MBE, (2 August 1886 – 25 June 1961) was a Canadian aviation pioneer and the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1947 to 1952.

He was schooled at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario and graduated from the University of Toronto in mechanical engineering in 1907, where he had been a member of Kappa Alpha Society along with his friend Frederick Walker Baldwin.

[4] For the next few years, he continued to set aviation records in Canada and North America, until 1916, when vision problems grounded him.

After a merger, he remained at the helm of the Curtiss-Reid Aircraft Company, a position he held until the advent of war.

[8] After a lengthy illness, McCurdy died in 1961 in Montreal, Quebec, and was buried the following month in Baddeck, Nova Scotia where a family home had been maintained.

The award commemorates the contributions made by John A.D. McCurdy during the development of the aviation industry in North America.