Sam Steinberg

Sam Steinberg

My hero is my late great-grandfather Sam Steinberg. He is my hero because he set an amazing example for his grandchildren, my dad being one of them. Besides owning the biggest chain of supermarkets in North America, he still made time to be with his family. He would make every single person feel like his favorite, which was part of his special charm. Sam was also involved in many charities. He was the president of the Jewish General Hospital and now his grandson, my dad, is following in his footsteps as the president, an example of how his grandchildren looked up to him. He was truly a very intelligent man. Sam had a book written about him after he died and on the first page it says that he would not have liked the book because he was such a modest man. He only liked books written about his company.

Sam was born in Hungary in 1905. A few years later he immigrated to Canada and worked for his mother in a little grocery store. Only a short time later he met his wife Helen Roth who was also his first cousin. Helen was only eighteen years old when she got married to Sam. My great-grandma Helen is celebrating her 97th birthday on June 14th.

Although I never met my great-grandfather I’ve heard so much about him from my entire family because he was such a big influence on them. My family feels enormous pride that he was their father, grandfather or great-grandfather because he was such an amazing man.