SWITZER HELPED ‘BUILD THIS CITY’
Businessman, philanthropist mourned
Calgary hospitality and philanthropic giant Sam Switzer has died.
Switzer, who suffered from lung and kidney ailments, was surrounded by loved ones when he died Wednesday at the Rockyview Hospital at the age of 92.
“He was bigger than life, he was Mr. Hospitality and in his later years was very philanthropic,” said his daughter, Darlene SwitzerFoster.
Switzer lived a life of adventures, pratfalls and triumphs, what he would call “learning experiences,” said close friend and author Sydney Sharpe, who wrote a biography of the notable Calgarian.
“His was a life of massive adventure and it never stopped ... on Tuesday he wanted to go out to his ranch near Bragg Creek to see his ponies,” said Sharpe.
Switzer was born in poverty in Calgary in 1926 and began his entrepreneurial career humbly — collecting ice that had fallen off passing trains that he’d sell to denizens of the city ’s red-light district.
“From the age of five, I was wired to work. Nearly everyone was in our impoverished community where dreams died fast,” said Switzer, recalling the Great Depression in a speech to the 2011 graduates of Mount Royal University, which granted him an honorary degree.
Armed with only a Grade 9 education, he delivered pharmacy drugs and later became a plasterer, from which he caught a taste for building, said Switzer-Foster.
“He did a lot of stuff to build this city,” she said.
The irrepressible businessman would go on to build the once-iconic, round-shaped Sheraton Summit hotel in downtown Calgary.
Switzer also owned the Elbow River Casino for more than two decades, along with hotels in Florida.
But he gave back heavily to his beloved city, donating $17 million “so far,” said his daughter.
Among his regular benefactors were the Calgary Herald Christmas Fund and Calgary Sun SUNshine Fund.
Others were Rotary, the Alberta Children’s Hospital, Meals on Wheels, Jewish Family Services and Habitat for Humanity.
He told Sharpe that making money was only a means to a greater end.
“If money is your motive then you’ve already failed. You must have a higher goal,” said Switzer, described as a man of deep religious faith.
To make that money, he built the city’s first disco, Daddy’s Money, said his son, John.
“He brought the decor from Los Angeles. I went to Los Angeles with him to get the furniture for it,” he said.
Another trait of Switzer’s, said longtime friend Sharpe, was an unfailingly sunny outlook, even in the face of illness.
“He never complained, ever,” she said of the man who wore many hats of service, including one as a longtime Calgary Stampede volunteer.
“He’d have this huge smile on his face because, to him, life was a blessing.”
A funeral for the man who counted six children and three step-children is planned for Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Beth Tzedec Synagogue, at 1325 Glenmore Tr. S.W.