Philanthropists in Calgary - The Spirit of Giving is Alive

Nov 23, 2010
Toby Welch

Haskayne School of Business - Thivierr

Calgary is a city of relative wealth with an enormous number of generous benefactors.

When I decided to write this piece, I thought it would be easy. Pick the people who have donated the greatest of themselves to Calgary and write a synopsis on them - easy enough. Boy, was I wrong! It was an immense challenge as Calgary is abound with generous people.

A man who made the final cut is Bob Kolstad. Kolstad was a modest man whose exterior life disguised the small fortune he made as an oil patch investor. He lived in an unpretentious home and took the Number 13 bus downtown to work Monday to Friday at 7 a.m. He rarely drove his 1974 Lincoln. Kolstad never married and was the last surviving member of his immediate family.

The Calgary Foundation

The Calgary Foundation distributes millions of dollars every year to hundreds of Calgary charities. When Kolstad died in November 2001, he donated $15 million to The Calgary Foundation, the largest single donation TCF ever received. The Kolstad Fund, another by-product of Kolstad’s generosity, gives $750,000 in perpetuity that is divided among the Salvation Army, Canadian Cancer Society, Alberta Heart and Stroke Foundation, Arthritis Society, STARS, and TCF. Bob Kolstad’s benevolence continues to impact Calgary years after his death.

Not all philanthropy entails the gift of money. In November 2006 Dick and Lois Haskayne donated 37 hectares of riverbank property to Calgary for a park.

This is not the first time the Haskayne family has given to Calgary. In 2002 Dick Haskayne donated $8 million to the University of Calgary’s business school. They responded by renaming the Faculty of Management the Haskayne School of Business. Haskayne’s lifetime philanthropic donations to the U of C have exceeded over $16 million. A fund, the Haskayne Endowment for Achieving Excellence, has been established from Haskayne’s generosity. The Haskayne’s donations are the largest contributions to the University of Calgary and are one of the most sizable contributions to any business school in Canada.

True altruism is giving without expecting anything in return. That spirit is alive and thriving in Calgary. The recipients of your generosity thank you.

More Calgary Philanthropists

The philanthropists already mentioned are just a smattering of the people who will leave our city better than they found it. So many have given so much.

J. C. Anderson – $11 million in oil and gas shares to The Calgary Foundation.
David Bissett – $20 million to post-secondary education in Canada including $12 million to the Mount Royal College to establish the Bissett School for Business. Bissett also gave $8.2 million to The Calgary Foundation.
Esther Honens - $5 million to start Calgary's Honens International Piano Competition.
Ted Rozsa - $3.5 million towards The Rozsa Centre at the University of Calgary as well as the establishment of The Rozsa Foundation which continues other philanthropic endeavours.
Ann and Sandy Cross – 1,942 hectares of ranch land at Calgary’s south end for a conservation area.
Henry Fok Ying Tung – $2 million toward a new international student residence at the U of C and $1 million to the Chinese Cultural Centre. Dr. Fok also founded the Calgary Canadian Chinese Education Foundation.
Wilbur and Betty Griffith – 91 hectares of land donated for a natural park in southwest Calgary.
Harvie Family – The family sold the Alberta government 1,314 hectares of land between Calgary and Cochrane for a great deal less than market value.
Harley Hotchkiss - $10 million to establish the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary.
Alvin and Mona Libin - $15 million to establish the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta.
Allan Markin - $18 million to the U of C to fund six research chairs for the Markin Institute for Public Health.
Bud McCaig - $10 million to establish the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute. The Bud McCaig Tower was constructed at the Foothills Hospital to honour a man who gave a great portion of his time, energy, and money to health care during his seventy-five years.
T. Boone Pickens - $2.25 million to the Hotchkiss Brain Institute despite not living in Calgary for the past twenty-five years.
Brett Wilson – Sponsors and serves Christmas meals for the hungry and builds homes for the poor in Mexico with his own hands and materials, among other endeavours.