George Sheppard

I was born in Timmins Ontario in December 1959. I was one of four children from a working class household (both my parents were employees at the Ontario Northland Railway). As a kid I played hockey poorly, lacrosse pretty well, and dabbled in Olympic weightlifting which my brother excelled in. I liked to read, especially History, and did fairly well in school, and was the first in my family to attend university. I came to Laurentian in 1978, taking mostly History, and went on to study at Trinity College Dublin (see photo above as I returned to my old haunts in 2016), McMaster University, and the University of Toronto. Eventually I earned a Ph.D. in History, and wrote a book on the War of 1812 (as well as articles on a variety of other topics). I taught History full-time/part-time at Nipissing and McMaster universities for 6 years, then went to get a B.Ed. so I could earn a real living. I eventually ended up living in Toronto and teaching at an independent school called Upper Canada College. I was a History teacher, lacrosse coach, and weightlifting club advisor. So, pretty much since childhood, I have had a very limited skill set but it has worked out fairly well. What was especially good is that in 2004 Laurentian came looking for actual teachers who had Ph.D.s to run a new School of Education. Since teachers don’t need Ph.D.s – you might get about $1000 extra a year for having one – we aren’t that common. I was very happy to return to northern Ontario, since most of my family is in Timmins and North Bay, and I wanted my kids to grow up here.