Jules Loeb; scion of grocery-store empire bult Canadian art collection
Hyfler/Rosner
Scion of Loeb grocery-store empire built exemplary Canadian
art collection
One of six sons of legendary founder Moses Loeb, he studied
agriculture and became a principal in M. Loeb Ltd. Later, he
branched into real estate and successfully dabbled in
venture capitalism
CHARLES MANDEL
Special to The Globe and Mail
October 2, 2008
Jules Loeb was never one to take it easy. When the Toronto
businessman wasn't channelling his restless energy into his
diverse entrepreneurial activities, he built a first-rate
collection of Canadian art, engaged in politics and
philanthropy, and devoted himself to entertaining family and
friends.
"He loved to keep busy. He couldn't sit still," recalled his
daughter, Audrey Loeb. "He was always moving." She remembers
that three weeks before it was discovered that Mr. Loeb
needed a coronary bypass and replacement valve operation,
her father had lugged 20 heavy tapestries up to the third
floor of her house.
"He was a very active guy and in the last year of his life,
he had severe emphysema and he couldn't do what he wanted to
do," said Ms. Loeb, who is a Toronto lawyer. "Even then, he
just kept going."
That same enthusiasm guided Mr. Loeb through his life as a
principal in the national grocery chain his father built -
M. Loeb Ltd. - and later, as he pursued business ventures of
his own. His son-in-law Steve Irwin, a former corporate
lawyer in New York, called Mr. Loeb "a man of divergent
tastes and skills who liked to do a lot of different
things."
To be sure, one year Mr. Loeb organized a lavish fireworks
display to help ring in the new year. But the fireworks
unexpectedly misfired and shot off horizontally instead of
vertically, sending the guests scrambling for their lives.
This firecracker of a man grew up in Ottawa where he was one
of six brothers, all of whom would work at one time or
another for M. Loeb Ltd. His father, Moses Loeb, had left
Russia around the turn of the century to avoid being drafted
into the Czar's army. He first settled in Cincinnati, but
reportedly grew nostalgic for the harsh winters of his
homeland and moved to Ottawa, where he established a candy
and tobacco store.
Along with his brothers, young Jules cared for the horses
that pulled a carriage that sold goods to other stores, and
he also worked in the warehouse. When he was seven, he
played a vital role in the family business when his father
burned his hands at the warehouse. His grandmother gave
Jules a tube of burn ointment and sent him racing down
Rideau Street on his tricycle to aid the family patriarch.
It is thought that he actually went to work for the family
firm a year later.
Meanwhile, he attended local schools and graduated from the
Ottawa High School of Commerce. Later, at the bidding of his
father, he attended agricultural college in the British
territory of Palestine.
"My grandfather wanted each of his boys to do something
different," said Ms. Loeb, who speculated that he probably
also thought it would be a wise move for a grocery business
to have someone who knew how food is grown.
In the mid-1930s, Mr. Loeb returned home to Ottawa and one
evening soon after he attended a community baseball game. He
struck up a conversation with a girl who had always lived
near him in the neighbourhood. The girl would become his
wife of 66 years, Fay. "There was never anybody else for me
or for him," Mrs. Loeb said.
After a short stint in the Royal Canadian Air Force in
Trenton, Ont., during the Second World War, Mr. Loeb
returned to work with the family grocery. Ultimately, he
rose to become one of the principals in the firm, by then a
national chain under the guidance his brother, Bertram. Mr.
Irwin said that Mr. Loeb always arrived at work early and
left late. After the death of Moses Loeb in 1951, Bertram
brought the American chain IGA to Canada.
The chain expanded quickly, but one by one the brothers -
including Jules - sold their stock and turned to other
interests, leaving Bertram to lead the business. In 1999,
Montreal's Metro Inc. bought the firm. Some 40 stores in
Ottawa and north-eastern Ontario still carry the Loeb name.
"That was always something he was very proud of, having
helped forge one of the leading commercial institutions of
Canada," Mr. Irwin said.
In the 1960s, Mr. Loeb began building a real-estate
portfolio, constructing and then operating apartment
buildings and hotels. He built the Embassy Hotel in Ottawa
and what was the Park Lane Hotel before it became a Ramada.
He also opened a small chain of department stores in the
area. "He had a busy financial life and it was all fun,"
said Mrs. Loeb, who added that he was extremely active.
"There wasn't anything he wasn't raring to do. If anybody
wanted to go anywhere on a trip on anything, he was ready to
go with them. Let's go, let's go."
Mr. Loeb also began backing other entrepreneurs. Some
ventures worked, others didn't. Among those that flourished
were investments in natural resources, the fishing industry,
a business that used innovative technology to grow tomatoes,
and another that helped develop halogen lighting.
Mr. Irwin described Mr. Loeb as a leader who could provide
good business advice. "He always said to these fellows who
he was involved with, just work harder, keep your head down
and we'll get to the end result in a positive attitude. That
was his fashion."
In the midst of it all, Mr. Loeb turned his attention to
politics, becoming the mayor of Lucerne, Que., across the
river from Ottawa. Then he decided to take a run at federal
politics, but his bid for a Liberal seat was less
successful. "Fortunately, as he said, he didn't make it,
because he wasn't going to enjoy politics," Mrs. Loeb said.
Indeed, politics once left a painful bite. In the early
1990s, he came under fire as a member of the Official
Residences Council that advised the National Capital
Commission to purchase $150,000 of used furniture from Mila
Mulroney. Brian Mulroney had established the council in 1984
after he was elected prime minister. At the time, the
council was accused of being politically motivated since all
its members had been appointed by Mr. Mulroney.
For Mr. Loeb's part, politics had not entered into it. He
would have landed on the council anyway because of his
reputation as a first-rate art collector.
Years earlier, the Loebs had decided to build an art
collection, although Mrs. Loeb said they didn't start out as
collectors; rather, they began buying works simply because
they liked them. Initially, they took a trip to France with
the idea they might purchase European works but soon
realized that was beyond their means.
Back home, they decided no one was collecting Canadian art
and began looking around. They collected the works of early
Canadian artists, from Cornelius Krieghoff on up. The
collection attracted the attention of Pierre Th�berge,
current director of the National Gallery of Canada. In 1970,
Mr. Th�berge put together an exhibit featuring works from
the Loeb collection that travelled to major galleries across
Canada.
Mr. Th�berge described the collection as an exemplary
accumulation of Canadian historical art up to the 20th
century, bringing together every important artist leading up
to that time. "It's a wonderful project and very
successfully done," he said. "It's very difficult to do
something like that for a private collector. But they had
the conviction. They had the eye. They had the ambition."
Today, works from the collection have been donated to
virtually all the major galleries across Canada. Nor were
the donations his only philanthropic work. Audrey Loeb said
he led campaigns on behalf of Otttawa's Jewish community
when he was younger and helped with the United Way Appeals,
bond drives and other good causes.
In his later years, Mr. Loeb spent time in Mexico and
Naples, Florida, where he was a famously terrible golfer.
"He was lousy," Audrey said, "but he loved it. My father's
greatest joy was to find golf balls on the course."
Mr. Irwin recalled that in games with Mr. Loeb, the
businessman would "slash at the ball with his driver,"
causing the ball to soar majestically to the left - very far
left - eliciting a curse from the golfer. And Mr. Loeb's
other daughter said that her father was known to swear,
complain and throw the occasional club, "but if you were to
ask him how his golf was that day, he would reply, 'I had
such a relaxing day.' "
JULES LOEB
Jules Loeb was born Oct. 3, 1917, at the Ottawa Civic
Hospital. He died Sept. 15, 2008, of emphysema at home in
Toronto. He was 90. He is survived by his wife, Fay,
daughters Audrey and Karen, and grandchildren Tracie Heather
and Greg. He also leaves David, the last of the six Loeb
brothers.
MWB
I read all your posts and GOD BLESS YOU.
Never, ever, ever forget that.
GO AMELIA
Mark
Hyfler/Rosner
"MWB" <bic...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:gc3k1k$vqh$1...@aioe.org...
Uh, do you know something about my health that I don't know?
I mean, thanks and all. But this sounds positively dire.
MWB
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:gc3kn0$oms$1...@reader1.panix.com...
I just wanted you to know I read your posts and I rarely reply to them.
The political posts I tend to reply to. I wouldn't make a very good fish.
No one will see this because it's on topic.
You are OK...CORRECT???
GO AMELIA
Mark