Mel (Miloš) Greif is a Canadian public high school teacher who taught history and geography at

Humberside Collegiate Institute Humberside Collegiate Institute (also known as Humberside CI, HCI, or Humberside), formerly known as Toronto Junction High School and Toronto Junction Collegiate Institute is a public high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It serves the ...

for over thirty years. There, he headed the history department, founded a charitable organization to begin collecting an archive of the history of the school, led a credit union for the local Czechoslovak community, and championed efforts to restore local artworks including a mural by

Arthur Lismer Arthur Lismer, LL. D. (27 June 1885 – 23 March 1969) was an English-Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven and educator. He is known primarily as a landscape painter and for his paintings of ships in dazzle camouflage. Early life ...

"believed to be the largest mural in Canada". In this time he won multiple awards including the 2002 Jane Jacobs Prize and the 2001

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. Greif was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, and lived in a refugee camp until he was six, when his family moved to Canada. He is a graduate of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

References

Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Canadian educators 21st-century Canadian educators Czechoslovak emigrants to Canada Governor General's Award winners University of Toronto alumni Canadian schoolteachers {{Canada-bio-stub