George W. Sullivan

The son of Irish immigrant parents was born in New York July 5, 1882. After graduating from the U. of New York he ventured to Montreal in 1906 when the town and iron ore mining were in their infancies. He served as a teacher and Principal at the OLD LOCATION and ROOSEVELT grade schools until his retirement fifty years later. The influence of his teachings manifested into the academic, cultural, social, and spiritual phases of families with grade school children. All students who passed through his classes were benefactors of the eminent standards of education he upheld. With intense interest and dedication he guided children of immigrant parents in their endeavor to speak, read and write English and become self confident. He shaped children for the future by motivating them to seek knowledge and to remain responsible and decent citizens. In later years many students were children and grandchildren of his first students. He voluntarily helped immigrant families to achieve the requirements for naturalization. The tenure of his teaching years paralleled the era of mining in Montreal. He arrived in the year the Montreal Mining Co. authorized the sinking of its No.4 mine shaft, and fifteen years before the excavation for the famous No.5 shaft began. When the era of mining in this town terminated in 1962, he had retired a mere six years earlier. Mr. Sullivan is renowned for having reached into the lives of children and townspeople through his long and devoted service, thus, embedding his mark of humanity into the history of “Montreal, The City Beautiful.”