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April 6, 2001
Passover edition
Friends remember Jack Diamond
Hard work made a poor immigrant a top businessman, a sense of
duty made him a noted philanthropist.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Vancouver's Jewish and general communities are reflecting on the
immense community-building contributions made by Jack Diamond, who
passed away March 25.
Diamond, one of the province's most noted businesspeople and philanthropists,
was 91. His was a life of dedication to work and the causes he loved,
which included family, tzedekah (charity) and the sport of kings.
Diamond began working almost as soon as he arrived in Vancouver
in 1927 from Lubience, in Galicia (at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and one of Europe's poorest backwaters). He learned English
at night while working at menial jobs during the day.
When he arrived in Vancouver, he was helped along by his brother,
Dave, 10 years his senior, who had migrated earlier.
At age 21, Diamond married 18-year-old Sadie Mandleman in an Orthodox
ceremony conducted by Rabbi Nathan Pastinsky.
Through hard work and careful investing, Diamond was able to buy
a butcher shop within a couple of years of his arrival. Buying up
other businesses when they were doing poorly and nursing them into
profitability, he managed to create British Columbia's largest meat
packing firm, Pacific Meats, just 13 years after arriving here.
He sold the company in 1963 and formed another, West Coast Reduction,
the following year. The tallow and feed operation is still operating
at the foot of Commercial Drive.
Rabbi Avraham Feigelstock, who spoke at the funeral March 26, said
Diamond was a leader "par excellence."
"He was the godfather of this community," said the rabbi,
citing numerous cases in which Diamond provided privately for people
in need. "I knew people who got meals from him every single
weekend."
In one case, he said, Diamond had an employee who worked for just
two weeks before taking chronically ill. Not only did Diamond keep
the person on the payroll, said the rabbi, but he sent food packages
around to the home on a regular basis.
"He had an incredible way of helping people and keeping their
dignity," he said.
Helping people maintain their dignity under any circumstances was
a recurring theme with Diamond, according to others who knew him.
"It was my privilege during 36 years as publisher/senior editor
of the Jewish Western Bulletin to experience firsthand how Jack
Diamond helped both the living and the dead," said Sam Kaplan,
who is also a past president of Schara Tzedeck synagogue. "During
all the decades that Jack Diamond was chairman of the Schara Tzedeck
cemetery board, he made sure that no Jew was ever denied a Jewish
burial - including those who were not members of the synagogue or
who were transients or homeless."
Kaplan said that, if Diamond disagreed with the committee's assessment
for burial services, he would pay the difference himself, and sometimes
pick up the entire tab to bury an indigent person.
Kaplan and his wife, Mona, said Diamond's actions personified the
precept of chesed shel emet, the final act of pure kindness done
for the deceased, from whom there is no possibility of gratitude.
Dr. Jack Blaney, a former president of Simon Fraser University
(SFU), worked with Diamond for years on university affairs, but
that was not his first encounter with the Diamond legend.
"I grew up in Vancouver," said Blaney. "And the
name Jack Diamond - even as a teenager - was always around."
Though he was not formally educated past grade school, Diamond
was a great supporter of learning. He served for six years on the
board of SFU and three years as chancellor.
His interpersonal skills were particularly necessary at the time
because, when he got involved at SFU, it was the late 1960s, a time
of great political upheaval and student ferment. While old, established
universities like Columbia and Harvard were rocked by the events,
new universities like SFU faced the possibility of being completely
unhinged by the activism.
Blaney categorized Diamond in the group of West Coast giants that
included W.A.C. Bennett and H.R. MacMillan.
"To have a guy like that associated with your university,
especially a young and boisterous university, gave it a lot of credibility,"
he said.
Though he could have attended board meetings and considered his
work done, Diamond took a more hands-on approach, said Blaney.
"Jack also really, really fundamentally liked the students,"
he said. "He would go talk to the students just like at his
work, he'd talk to the workers.... The guy really, really cared."
As others have noted, Diamond didn't waste time on rhetoric.
"He had an enormous capacity to get to the heart of an issue,"
Blaney said. This was evident in board meetings, but it was also
evident when Diamond defused a student sit-in on campus by going
in and meeting with the protesters himself.
Grace McCarthy, the former cabinet minister, and her husband, Ray,
have been friends of the Diamond family for many years. When they
attended the service last week, McCarthy was moved that every person
she spoke to had a story about Diamond's generosity.
"He helped either in a major way or they were small acts of
kindness," she said. "We knew him as a very straightforward,
very good businessman with integrity. You could trust the handshake
of Jack Diamond above and beyond any written contract."
Diamond had a good friendship with another self-made man, the late
premier, W.A.C. Bennett.
"I think they both were sort of cut out of the same cloth,"
said McCarthy, who knew both men well. There was little grey area
and no room for equivocation in either man, she said.
McCarthy remembers after Bennett's Social Credit government was
defeated in 1972 and it fell to McCarthy to revive the party, which
most pundits had left for dead.
"I went to Jack and said, 'We have no money and we can't pay
the girls in the office,' " she said, asking for free office
space in one of Diamond's buildings. Diamond argued that the Socreds
would never be revived, but McCarthy's enthusiasm wore him down.
He provided her with keys to a brand new building on Main Street,
which served as ground zero for one of Canada's most remarkable
political resurrections.
"He said, 'You can have it for as long as you want,' "
said McCarthy. She noted that Diamond understood "the philosophy
of giving back."
"What's really neat about it is he's passed it on to his children
and grandchildren," she said. "We'll miss him greatly."
Mayor Philip Owen grew up with Diamond's two sons and still socializes
with Gordon and his wife, Leslie.
"I guess I've known the family all my life," he said.
Owen's father, a lawyer, and the senior Diamond had business dealings
when Vancouver's business community was a much more compact club.
Once Owen became mayor, he was impressed by Diamond's ability to
sway people to his side. When Diamond would attend council meetings,
Owen said, he had an incredible presence. Councillors would mutter
among themselves, "Jack Diamond was there, Jack Diamond was
there," Owen said.
"With those big, dark-rimmed glasses, he could stare you down,"
said the mayor. "But there was a huge, soft, gentle centre
to him." Owen was touched by the countless stories of Diamond's
acts of kindness that were recounted at the service.
"Knowing him, you knew that they were absolutely believable,"
he said. Diamond is an example of good citizenship, said the mayor.
"I just enjoyed his company and admired him very much,"
he said. Among the community agencies that benefited from the Diamond
generosity was the Richmond Jewish Day School. Last year, the Diamond
Foundation approved a matching grant to the school to a maximum
of $750,000 to provide for an expansion of the school.
Bev Davis, with Dina Schweber, was co-president of the school when
the foundation approved the funds. Davis was impressed with the
interest the family members on the foundation board took in the
school and the questions they asked. The foundation did not, Davis
said, just hand out money, but wanted to become familiar with the
philosophy and objectives of the community school. Moreover, they
made the grant go further by in spiring the school's supporters
to raise a parallel amount. The attention they paid to the project
gave the grant a special meaning, said Davis.
"It meant that they believed in us and they were willing to
put their name on our product, which meant a lot to us," she
said.
Dealing with the family through the granting process was a thoroughly
pleasant experience, she said.
"They are, I have to say, an absolutely wonderful family,"
she said.
Among his many achievements, Diamond was a war-era "dollar-a-year
man" helping to oversee meat rationing; he helped save the
1954 Empire Games, which almost foundered for lack of funds; he
was also pivotal to setting up the B.C. Heart Foundation (now the
Heart and Stroke Foundation).
Diamond was predeceased by his wife Sadie on Jan. 1, 1990. He is
survived by sons, Charles and Gordon, as well as six grandchildren
and 13 great-grandchildren.
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