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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Francisco Almeida e Sousa

Francisco Almeida e Sousa 1921-2018 Engineer, entrepreneur, union leader and philanthropist

Francisco Nápoles Ferraz de Almeida e Sousa was born in Coimbra in 1921. He completed part of his university studies in Porto. He graduated in Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Coimbra. In France, he specialised in Metallurgy.

During his occupation, he worked as Chief Engineer of the Water Services of Coimbra (1945-1947), was the director of Vulcano & Colares factory in Amadora (1948-1951), managing partner of the Rio Sousa Foundry, in Gondomar (1951-1968) and consultant at the Guadramil Mining Company, in Bragança. From 1968 until his retirement, he headed the Services of Hidroeléctrica do Cávado (HICA), later known as Companhia Portuguesa de Electricidade (CPE) - Portuguese Electricity Company, and as Electricidade de Portugal (EDP). Francisco Almeida e Sousa was also associated to CIMNOR and NOVA CIMNOR, SA.

Alongside this activity, he also participated actively in the political, economic and cultural life of the country, especially in Porto and the north of the country, as statesman and association leader, both at the end of the dictatorship period and during democracy.
He was elected MP for the Porto constituency to the National Assembly (1967-1973), Porto Councillor (1972-1974) and Chairman of the Municipal Assembly of Porto (1981-1983).

Since 1967, he has been part of the governing bodies of the Porto Industrial Association, in which he was Acting Chairman in 1973 when Mário Borges left for health reasons. He assumed effective office between 1974 and 1982. At present, he is Secretary of the General Assembly (2008-) at this institution, which has been renamed Portuguese Entrepreneurial Association.

Francisco Almeida e Sousa was the founder and director of the Portuguese Foundry Association, established in 1964, the Chairman of the Industrial Metalworkers Guild of the North (1966-1969) and a member of the Advisory Council of the Board of the Ports of Douro and Leixões, and of the former Office of Navigability of the Douro River.
In the 1960s, when the Auzelle Plan designed for Porto previewed the destruction of the Barredo neighbourhood, Almeida e Sousa and the architect Carlos Loureiro opposed this project and commissioned the first plans for the recovery of this waterfront area to architect Fernando Távora.

Along with the protection of private initiative and the progress of the Greater Porto area and of the North region, Francisco Almeida e Sousa also assumed himself as a man of culture and solidarity. Throughout his life, he joined activities in the support of children and youth, especially from the less privileged areas of Porto, for example the Home of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, which he founded.
He was the Chairman of SOPORTHIS – Federation of Welfare Institutions in the Historical Area of Porto -, the General Boards of the Foundation for the Development of the Historical Porto and the Júlio Dinis Maternity Hospital, and was the president of the District Union of Private Welfare Institutions of Porto (UDIPSS- Porto) and of the Directorate for the Social Centre of Barredo.

He collaborated in newspapers, magazines and encyclopaedias, for example the daily newspaper "Jornal de Notícias", of which he was the administrator, the monthly magazine "O Tripeiro", which he helped re-launch in 1981 and was its director and administrator, and was its honorary member; he was the author of several entries in "Enciclopédia Verbo" and published the works Razão da navegabilidade do Douro (1980), Ideias e Lutas de uma vida (1994) and Pedra sobre Pedra (1999).

He was the Chairman of the General Assembly of the Museum of Industry, which was the result of an association established in 1993 by the City Council of Porto and AEP, based in Moagens Harmonia until 2008, when it was relocated to Rua Engenheiro Ferreira Dias in Ramalde.

He was distinguished with the Medal of Honor of the City of Porto (2006) and as Great-officer of the Infante D. Henrique Order (2012).

He died in Porto on october 17 2018.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)