Frank Baylis is a University of Waterloo graduate, an entrepreneur, a politician and the driving force behind the Gloria Baylis Foundation’s $20-million gift to Waterloo’s engineering school.

But when the drapes were pulled away from the new name of the Engineering 7 building on Tuesday afternoon, there were no big, bold letters spelling out the Baylis name.

Instead, it read: Pearl Sullivan Engineering Building.

Sullivan was the dean of Waterloo’s engineering school from 2012 to 2019 before her passing in 2020 after a 12-year battle with cancer.

Described by her colleagues as a “force of nature” who wouldn’t take no for an answer, she was also the guiding hand behind the construction of Engineering 7 in 2018, from spearheading a lofty $100-million fundraising campaign to even choosing

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