Until the mid-1960s, the accounting and financial aspects of the Sir George Williams University affairs were mainly handled by the YMCA of Montreal. Because of the increasing size and complexity of the University’s finances, and the requirements of the Quebec Ministère de l’Éducation for more detailed data, steps were taken in 1966 by the University to establish an Office of the Treasurer to take over these functions. In January 1967, William McIntosh Reay became the first University Treasurer, thus relieving Henry G. Worrell, Controller of the University, from some of the many heavy responsibilities that had gradually accrued to his office (the function of Controller was actually abolished in 1971). The University set up its own accounting system from June 1, 1967 and the fiscal year 1967-1968, was the first for which complete separate University financial statements were prepared. During that period the University substantially used the services of the Computer Centre in the areas of payroll, accounts payable and financial statements.
The position of Vice-Principal, Administration and Finance was established at the end of 1966. John Smola was appointed to the position, effective in February 1967.
Television Sir George (TVSG) came into existence in October 1966, with the ratification by the Students’ Association of Sir George Williams University (later the Day Students’ Association) and made its home in the then newly erected Henry F. Hall Building. The first organization staff was composed of James Joyce as executive producer, Rob Joyce as creative director, and Barry Barnes as technical advisor. Membership was open to all undergraduate students. TV Sir George’s first show appeared on Channel 9 on November 21st 1966. TVSG became CUTV in January 1975.
Timothy Patrick Slattery, lawyer, author, and historian was born in Montreal on February 4th, 1911 and died in Montreal in August 1985. He was educated at St. Leo’s, Westmount, and came to Loyola College where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931. The same year, he entered the law faculty at McGill University and graduated in 1934. During his last year at McGill, he received the Alexander Morris Exhibition award for highest standing, as well as the Lieutenant-Governor's Silver Medal for Roman Law. With his graduation, he won the Macdonald Travelling Scholarship, which entitled him to a year's study in France 1934-1935. Back in Montreal, he commenced the practice of law in association with Col. Trihey. In the early in 1940s, he formed his own law firm “Slattery, Bélanger & Fairbanks”.
As legal advisor to Loyola College, member of its Board of Directors and later of its Board of Governors, Timothy P. Slattery contributed in the 1960s to the College’s attempts to get a university charter from the Quebec Legislature. He was also instrumental in drawing up the legal documents for the 1974 merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University to form Concordia University. He was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Concordia Board of Governors on October 10, 1974.
Timothy P. Slattery was referred to as the historian of Loyola College and a biographer of Thomas D’Arcy McGee. He was also a long-time historian of the St. Patrick’s Society of Montreal. He was the author and illustrator of the following works: Loyola College and Montreal (Montreal: Palm Publishers, 1962), The Assassination of D'Arcy McGee (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1968), and They Got to Find Mee Guilty Yet (Toronto: Double Day, 1972).
Timothy P. Slattery married Patricia O’Brien, they had three children, Maureen, Brian, and Patricia.
Walter Kent Sloan was born September 5, 1924. He joined Sir George Williams University in 1971 as an assistant professor of theatre arts. After the merger of Sir George Williams with Loyola College to form Concordia University in 1974, his title changed to assistant professor of fine arts. He was promoted to associate professor of fine arts in 1983, and became associate professor of theatre in 1987. In addition to teaching, Sloan was active as a set, costume, and props designer for numerous Canadian theatres. He died on November 9, 1991.
Mari-Lin Smith Miller, born Mari-Lin Lorrayne Smith, attended Sir George Williams University in the 1950s and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in November 1964. She died on April 30, 2010, in Montreal.
Carolyn Smith was a bookstore owner and an acquaintance of Irving Layton. Smith frequently held poetry readings during the 1960s and 1970s at her bookstore, The Book Cellar on St. James Street in Hamilton and at the First Unitarian Church, also located in Hamilton. Among those who gave readings at the poetry events was Irving Layton.
John Smola was born in Czechoslovakia on May 12, 1923, and died in Ottawa on November 14, 2013. He came in Canada in 1949 and graduated from Sir George Williams University (B. Com. 1954, B.A. 1956) and obtained a master degree (1959) and Ph. D. (1963) from Université de Montréal. John Smola joined Sir George Williams University as Vice-Principal, Administration and Finance in 1967, after serving as Vice-President at Molson Breweries Limited. At merger, he became Concordia Vice-Rector, Administration and Finance until May 31, 1976. He then became a full-time professor in the Department of Management, Faculty of Commerce and Administration. He retired in 1986.
Mary Soderstrom, born 1942 in Walla Walla Washington, is a novelist, short story and nonfiction writer. She has been involved in a number of literary organizations since she began her writing career in the 1970s. Soderstrom was a founding member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation; she sat on the National council of the Writers’ Union of Canada; and served on the Quebec program Writers in Schools where she was a liaison with the Conseil des arts et lettres du Quebec. She was also one of the founders of Write pour écrire, a bilingual literary show that was held in 1996, 1997, and 1998. Write pour écrire is seen as a precursor to the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival.
Soderstrom has been involved in provincial politics for more than 30 years, primarily the NDP and Québec Solidaire. She was the President of the Outremont NDP riding association during Thomas Mulcaire’s tenure as party leader.
Soderstrom has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards. She was shortlisted twice for the QSPELL Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (finding the Enemy (1997) and Endangered Species (1995)) and was a finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award (1977). Green City: People, Nature and Urban Places (2007) was one of the Globe and Mail’s 100 best books of 2007.
Soderstrom has written a number of fiction and non-fiction books. Non-fiction publications include Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future (2020); Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate Between Neighbo(u)ring States (2019); Road Through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move (2017); Making Waves: The Continuing Portuguese Adventure (2010); The Walkable City: From Haussmann’s Boulevards to Jane Jacobs’ Streets and Beyond (2008); Green City: People, Nature and Urban Places (2006); and Recreating Eden: A Natural History of Botanical Gardens (2001). Fiction publications include River Music (2015), Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography (2013), The Violets of Usambara (2008), After Surfing Ocean Beach (2004), The Truth Is (2000), The Words on the Wall; Robert Nelson and the Rebellion of 1838 (1998), Finding the Enemy (1997), Endangered Species (1995), and The Descent of Andrew McPherson (1976). Soderstrom also wrote the children’s book Maybe Tomorrow I'll Have a Good Time (1981). The Descent of Andrew McPherson was shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Raymond Souster was born in Toronto on January 15, 1921 and died on October 19, 2012. Souster was a Canadian poet and launched three poetry magazines: Direction (1941-1946), Contact (1952-1954), and Combustion (1957-1960). Souster was a founding member of the League of Canadian Poets and served as its first president from 1967-1972. He won the Governor General's Award for poetry for The Colour of the Times in 1966. He is also a recipient of the Order of Canada (1995). In addition to his writing, Souster worked at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from 1939 to 1985, and served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1941-1945. Souster was friends with Irving Layton, among many other Canadian poets.
Souster was prolific and produced over 50 volumes of his own work, including: Go to Sleep World (1947), City Hall Street (1951), Shake Hands with the Hangman: Poems 1940-1952 (1953), A Dream That is Dying: Poems (1954), For What Time Slays (1954), A Local Pride (1962), Jubilee Of Death: The Raid On Dieppe (1984), Queen City (1984), Close to Home (1996), Of Time and Toronto (2000), and Take me out to the Ballgame (2002).
Clifford Sparling joined Sir George Williams College in 1952 as assistant professor of mathematics. In 1956 he was appointed associate professor of mathematics. From 1965 to 1972, he occupied this position on a part-time basis. He died in 1983, at the age of 87.