St. George's University - History

History

St. George's University was founded on July 23, 1976 by an act of Grenada's Parliament. The name is taken from the capital city of Grenada. The original founders were Charles Modica, Louis Modica, Edward McGowan, and Patrick F. Adams. Classes at St. George’s School of Medicine began on January 17, 1977. Almost all of the founding faculty members had been educated either in the United States or Europe.

A Marxist coup forcibly overturned the Gairy government of Grenada in 1979, as the school was in its infancy with a student enrollment of 630. There were nearly 1000 Americans on the island (including students, faculty, families, etc.). The U.S. government launched Operation Urgent Fury in 1983 as a result. Students were evacuated and classes were moved to Long Island, New York; New Jersey, and Barbados temporarily until 1984.

The reason given by the U.S. Administration of Ronald Reagan to justify the October 1983 invasion of Grenada was to rescue American medical students at St. George’s University from the danger posed to them by the violent coup that had overthrown Grenada’s Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Bishop, a number of members of his government and several dozen civilians were killed in the coup and the island had been placed under a 24-hour curfew. During the days immediately after the coup, the only independent information coming out of Grenada was from a ham radio operated by a St. George’s student. In his memoir, President Reagan recounted the return to the U.S. of the St. George’s students as an event that affected him deeply. “I was among many in our country whose eyes got a little misty when I watched their arrival in the United States on television and saw some of them lean down and kiss American soil the moment that they stepped off the airplanes that brought them home."

In 1987, St. George's University obtained approval to conduct medical training in New York and New Jersey, making the University the first non-US medical school to gain approval in both states. The British Medical Council granted the School limited recognition in 1988, an act that opened doors to wide acceptance in the British Commonwealth countries. Today, nearly 8,000 graduates of the University practice medicine worldwide.