” He was George R . Gavrila ”

George R. Gavrila was born to Martha and George Gavrila in the town of Beba Veche, country of Timis, in what is now the Banat region of Romania, on April 21, 1914.

His father came to the United States even before George’s birth. George and his mother joined him when George was still a very young child.

But his father died young, and so George spent most of his life as an only child caring for his widowed mother, until her death at age 96 in 1983.

As a young man, George graduated from Highland Park High School and from Eastern Michigan University, one of the first of his generation of Romanian-Americans to receive a college degree.

He taught in the Highland Park school system, then was a principal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, and then moved to the Dearborn School System for many years, retiring in 1979.

He was an educator. Even though he had been retired for almost 15 years, George never stopped showing his great respect for academic achievement, and did what he could to promote and reward it.

Soon after his dear mother feel asleep in the Lord, George wanted to honor her memory with an annual scholarship for women in the diocese who are pursuing graduate studies at colleges and universities; the A.R.F.O.R.A./Martha Gavrila Scholarship for Women. He took great care in reading the grade transcripts of applicants, expressing his own joy in their accomplishments.

George valued his relationships, taking great pride in the fact that he was once a chauffeur to Bishop Policarp, the first Bishop of our diocese, in the 1930′s, driving him from parish to parish throughout the United States and Canada.

He had a close relationship with the late Archbishop Valerian, as well as with Bishop Nathaniel, working on the staff of Solia, and with the “Supporters of the Episcopate.”

George was a devoted member of Saints Peter & Paul Church in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, serving as council member and delegate to the annual Episcopate Congress.

As the result of a massive heart attack, George died on January 14, 1994, at the age of 79. Funeral service was held at Saints Peter & Paul Church and burial was at the Vatra Saint Mary Cemetery.

May his memory be eternal.