Joseph J. Barnicke: Mogul, philanthropist
1923-2015
Toronto real estate mogul and philanthropist Joseph J. Barnicke is being remembered this week as a tireless worker who had no interest in retirement.
“I’m an active person,” he told the Financial Post in 2009. “What am I going to do, sit and drink gin all day?”
Barnicke, who founded Canada’s largest independently owned real estate firm J. J. Barnicke Ltd. in 1959, died at the age of 92 in his Torontoarea home Tuesday morning. Those close to him said he kept working until last fall.
Born in Cudmore, Sask., then moved to Oakville, Ont., with his family, Barnicke was a force in the commercial and industrial real estate business for 48 years. His company endured many real estate cycles — including the 1988-1992 crash, which felled some of the country’s biggest companies — and survived one of Canada’s largest embezzlement scandals, when his chief financial officer misappropriated $20 million.
He sold J.J. Barnicke to global real estate conglomerate DTZ Holdings PLC in 2007 for $26.6 million and continued as chairman at DTZ Barnicke Ltd.
Blake Hutcheson, president and chief executive of Oxford Properties Group Inc. and former CEO of Barnicke’s rival CB Richard Ellis, said Barnicke was a true leader in the real estate industry.
“Joe was famous for saying, ‘Don’t play the deal. Play the man,’” Hutcheson told the Financial Post. “He lived his life not chasing deals, but building relationships.”
“He could be a competitor and he could be your dear friend at the same time. He could be tough at a transaction, then at the end of the day shake your hand and go have a glass of white wine with you,” he added.
Not one to mince words, Barnicke told FP that economists were “shovelling fog,” in his 2009 interview.
Aside from his business prowess, Barnicke was an emphatic advocate for volunteerism and philanthropy. He was actively involved in Toronto’s St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation from 1983 until shortly before his death. The association was sparked during a brush with cancer in his leg when he was a boy, through which the Sisters of St. Joseph supported him.
During his time with the foundation, he helped fund a new ward that now houses the emergency department and operating rooms. The ward was named in honour of his late wife, Justina M. Barnicke. “He thought it should be volunteers owning that leadership role and making a difference,” said St. Joseph Health Care Foundation president and CEO Maria Dyck. “I think it’s rare that people can be so engaged for as long as he was.”’
Barnicke was also the prime donor of the University of Toronto’s Hart House art gallery, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, in addition to serving as campaign chair of the Canadian Cancer Society at the municipal, provincial and federal level.
He was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1989 and awarded Member of the Order of Ontario. He became an RCAF flying instructor in the remaining years of the war after he graduated from high school in Oakville.
He was predeceased by his wife, Justina, and daughter, Justina Anne. He is survived by four children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.