Commentary
In this month’s edition of the Montreal Economic Institute’s newsletter, MEI president Michel Kelly-Gagnon offered his organization’s best wishes for a happy 100th birthday to senior Canadian businessman Stephen A. Jarislowsky. He thanked Mr. Jarislowsky for his friendship and support of the MEI since its earliest days.
Stephen Jarislowsky is a Canadian icon with an outstanding record of courage, common sense, achievement, and philanthropy. He was born in Berlin on Sept. 9, 1925. His family left Germany for other parts of Europe and finally emigrated to the United States in 1941. There, he studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University.
After service in the U.S. Army during World War II, and following a post-war assignment to serve counter-intelligence in occupied Japan, Stephen returned to academics. He completed an MA in Far Eastern studies at the University of Chicago and an MBA at Harvard Business School. After Harvard, he moved to Montreal where he worked for several years in engineering, sales administration, and finance for the Alcan aluminum mining and manufacturing company….