World Cup connection

Soccer fans taking in this summer’s FIFA World Cup will have noticed the energy and excitement at Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver, B.C., which hosted spectacular tournament watch parties while also serving as TSN’s outdoor studio. The waterfront plaza is known as the permanent home of the 2010 Olympic cauldron, which was lit when Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Games.

What soccer fans may not know, however, is that the plaza is connected to a renowned University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate. In fact, the Vancouver landmark was named after USask alumnus Jack Poole, who earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree at USask’s College of Engineering in 1954.

Here are five facts about the late Jack Poole, who was an award-winning USask graduate, a prominent businessperson and real-estate developer, a philanthropist, and the former CEO of the Vancouver Olympic bid committee.

Poole was the youngest of the three children of John (Jack) Vigors Poole and his wife, Edith W. Goalen. Growing up in the small town of Mortlach, Sask., Jack Poole enjoyed playing sports, such as hockey and baseball, and was an intramural wrestling champion during his time at USask.

Media stories often note how Poole rose from relatively humble beginnings to eventually become a Canadian business icon.

“Long before his days as head of a British Columbia-based real-estate empire, Poole attended a two-room school in Mortlach, Sask., while living in a house with no indoor plumbing, electricity, or running water,” a 2009 Global News article states. “He was born at the end of the Great Depression, the son of a farm equipment dealer. The strapping teenager was a talented hockey player with a bright future and NHL potential.” Unfortunately, however, as the article notes, Poole was severely injured after a car hit him at the age of 15, ending his professional hockey dreams.

A biography prepared by the Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture notes that Jack Poole was a sixth-generation Métis citizen, through an 18th-century British ancestor who had arrived in Moose Factory on James Bay in 1776 to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company and married a Cree woman. In March 2007, Poole was made a member of the Order of the Sash by the Métis Nation British Columbia.

“His parents instilled in Jack optimism, the importance of education, and the belief that there was no limit to his future if he applied himself,” states the Business Laureates of British Columbia Hall of Fame’s website. “His father’s lineage provided Jack his 1/32 Cree blood, and the Métis status in which Jack took great pride.”

Poole earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (civil engineering) at USask in 1954. He then worked in Calgary, Alta., before relocating to Vancouver, B.C. There, Poole co-founded Daon Development Corporation, which grew to become the second-largest real-estate development company in North America. In 1989, he co-founded VLC Properties (now Concert Properties) and served as chair of Concert’s board of directors.

The Business Laureates of British Columbia Hall of Fame—which inducted Poole in 2010—noted that Poole “rose from relatively poor beginnings to become one of Canada’s most successful builders and community leaders. He played the founding and lead role in the building of two major real-estate development companies now readily acknowledged to be among Canada’s most successful.”

“Jack’s business and personal successes have been matched by what he’s given back to the communities in which he’s lived,” the hall of fame’s website states. “He chaired numerous charity drives and dinners, and participated regularly in fundraising efforts for civic, provincial, and federal political parties. A generous supporter of community initiatives, including ongoing philanthropic support for such British Columbia institutions as the BC Children’s Hospital, the Vancouver General Hospital, the University of British Columbia Hospital, and the Arts Umbrella, Poole also helped bring the Molson Indy race to Vancouver. He and his wife, Darlene, established the Jack and Darlene Poole Endowment Fund for pediatric oncology research.”

For Poole, taking on this role was an opportunity to give back to the community. He put his quiet life and golf game on hold to accept the job on one condition—that he would only work for free. In an interview for a 2008 Green&White article, Poole said that one of the best experiences was being in the room when the International Olympic Committee announced that Vancouver was chosen to host the 2010 Games.

“It was kind of a numbing experience, to come that far knowing anything can happen. You don’t dare believe that you might actually win,” Poole said in the interview. “I didn’t know how I would react, but when they announced that we’d won, every Canadian in the room went nuts!”

The Canadian Olympic Committee website notes that “Jack Poole always considered it an honour to be asked to serve, so when he was recruited to lead the effort to bring the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to Vancouver, he did so with good humour, strength, intelligence, and integrity.”

“For two years, Poole served as the volunteer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation. In that role, he provided exceptional leadership and united multiple stakeholders, including various levels of government, sports organizations, and the communities in which the Games would take place, to ensure a successful bid,” the website states.

“After Vancouver was named as the host city, Poole co-chaired the Transition Committee which would hand over responsibility of the Games’ organization to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), of which he would be unanimously elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors.”

Poole passed away on Oct. 23, 2009, shortly after the Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, to begin the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay. He was 76 years old.

“Though he never got to witness the Games, which were successful both organizationally and for Team Canada, his legacy lives on,” the Canadian Olympic Committee website states. “For so many, Poole was the embodiment of the Olympic and Paralympic spirit, so it is fitting that the location of the Olympic cauldron was named ‘Jack Poole Plaza’ in his memory. He was posthumously awarded the Olympic Order by the International Olympic Committee.”

“British Columbia and Canada have lost a great friend,” former B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said in a 2009 statement from Greece following Poole’s passing. “Few citizens reflect the generosity of spirit, the commitment to the public good, and the undying dedication to public well-being that was exemplified by Jack Poole. His was an example of leadership, strength, and integrity that is unmatched in my recollection.”

Each year, a discipline within USask Engineering hosts the C.J. Mackenzie Gala to recognize the accomplishments of an alumnus or an alumna who has achieved prominence in their profession. They are honoured as the evening’s Distinguished Lecturer and are inducted into the USask College of Engineering Alumni Wall of Distinction. In 1980, Poole served as the C.J. Mackenzie Distinguished Lecturer.

Poole also received many other significant awards and honours throughout his lifetime, including an Indspire award in 2007. In 2003, he was invested into the Order of British Columbia, and he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006 while serving with the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation.

“Jack Poole's personal integrity and strength of character are the hallmarks of his leadership,” the 2006 Order of Canada citation stated. “He has applied his entrepreneurial acumen to building real-estate development companies such as Concert Properties. With eloquence and determination, he forged a coalition of disparate interests into a united team and overcame significant challenges as he directed Vancouver’s successful bid to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”