A rich life of inspiring philanthropy
We’ve lost an inspiring member of the Edmonton family with the passing of Barbara Poole, this city’s first lady of philanthropy.
Most Edmontonians associate the Poole name with a generous impulse for giving on both Barbara’s part and that of her late husband John, the former owner of PCL Construction. Their passion for the old notion that charity begins at home was manifest over the years in millions of dollars in donations to the Edmonton Symphony; the Alberta Ballet; the Winspear Centre; the Citadel Theatre and countless other arts organizations. When the Art Gallery of Alberta began searching for a champion patron to kick-start fundraising efforts a few years back, it was the Pooles who quietly stepped up with a $6-million cheque.
The Pooles have also helped an extraordinary variety of social agencies, educational institutions and environmental causes through the years, including the University of Alberta; MacEwan University; the Banff Centre and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Great wealth is often stereotypically associated with pompous tycoons who revel shamelessly in the good life. That classist cliché is an insult to those who take seriously the idea of social responsibility and returning back to the community some of the wealth that’s been earned there.
Barbara, who was 83 when she died Monday, and John, who died in 2007 at the age of 90, were instrumental in making Edmonton a better place and that legacy should be celebrated. Barbara’s passing is also a reminder to us all that we should make a point of thanking these givers in our midst while they’re still with us — the likes of Bill and Mary Jo Robbins, John Cameron, John Hokanson, Bob Westbury and the Hole family, just to name a few.
“Edmonton would not be Edmonton without the Poole family,” Mayor Stephen Mandel said Monday, three weeks after proclaiming Barbara Poole Day at a lunch in her honour at the Hotel MacDonald.
“It’s a sadder day than most people know, because none of us knows the entirety of what Barbara and John did for Edmonton, the province and the country,” added jazz musician and former senator Tommy Banks, who came to know the jazz-loving couple in the 1960s.
Here’s to a life of good works, very much in keeping with the Greek origins of the word philanthropy as a “love of humanity.”