In memory of
George Tsuyuki
June 20, 1929 -
July 28, 2025
It is with deep sorrow that we announce that George Yoshitsugu Tsuyuki, a husband, entrepreneur, and hero to four generations of family, has left us at the age of 96. He passed peacefully, surrounded by his sons Robert and Gary Tsuyuki, and his daughter-in-law Cheryl, who held his hand until his very last breath.
George was less of a role model and more like a folk hero to his family, and the story of his life has become a legend to everyone whose lives he touched. Born in B.C. to a farming family, as the eldest brother to four sisters, George developed a unique brand of “whatever works” survivalism and canny independence that carried him through his family’s displacement and internment during the Second World War. It was an injustice that left him with an enduring pride in his Japanese-Canadian heritage, and a lifelong nostalgia for his farmboy roots, but which he always recounted with a certain pride in his teenage self, who learned to look at life a little sideways, like an adventure, like a puzzle that could be solved with a little jury-rigging and wilfulness and making-do.
His cleverness, friendliness, and stubborn work ethic carried him through the rest of life, through logging camps and high school in the post-war period, through a prodigiously unlikely list of part-time jobs, through college, marriage, family, daring exploits in almost every country in the world, and, of course the birth of G & G Electronics, his dream, that thrives on to this day.
Few can claim a life as colourful as George’s–not many would dare to try. The absence of his trademark wide grin or stubborn grimace or feigned wide-eyed innocence, will be missed by all who knew him.
He will be forever treasured by his family, including his wife of over 70 years, Shizue; his sons and daughters-in-law Gary & Cheryl and Robert & Seungheui; his grandchildren Dave (Tiffany), Katie (Jamie Thompson), and Sydney; and his great-grandchildren Taylor, Devin, and Riley Tsuyuki.
A Celebration of Life will be held from 5:00pm to 7:30 pm on Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at Pine Hills Funeral Centre, 625 Birchmount Rd, Toronto, ON. Family eulogies will be shared by Gary and Robert at 6:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, we would encourage donations to the Scarborough Health Network, which offered him compassionate and dedicated care in his final days.
