Sir George Williams University College, named after George Williams, founder of the original YMCA in London, upon which the Montreal YMCA was based. In 1934, Sir George Williams College offered the first undergraduate credit course in adult education in Canada. The Sir George Williams College became Sir George Williams University (SGWU) in 1948, when it received a university charter from the provincial government, though it remained the education arm of the Montreal YMCA. SGWU expanded into its first standalone building, the Norris Building, in 1956. It established a Centre for Human Relations and Community Studies in 1963. SGWU continued to hold classes in the
George Washington Williams George Washington Williams George Washington Williams (October 16, 1849 – August 2, 1891) was an American Civil War soldier, Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, journalist, and writer on African-American history. In the late 1880s, Williams turned his interest to Europe and Africa. After having been impressed by meeting King Léopold II of Belgium, he traveled in 1890 to the Congo Free State (then owned by the king) to see its development. Shocked by the widespread, brutal abuses and near-slavery imposed on the Congolese, he wrote an open letter to Leopold in 1890 about the suffering of the region's native inhabitants at