The first thing that Leon Blackmore asked his cardiologist when he awoke from heart surgery was not, “How did it go?”
It was, “What can I do for you?”
The answer, it seems, was “A lot.”
On Wednesday morning, Vancouver General Hospital celebrated Blackmore’s $18.4 million gift by re-naming the Centennial Pavilion in his memory.
The Leon Judah Blackmore Pavilion on West 12th honours the late real estate developer’s bequest which will fund
• a cardiology diagnostic centre
• men’s health
• a hybrid operating room and
• a sleep disorders program.
“This outward focus on doing the right thing was the best introduction to this strong, hardworking and deeply principled man,” Dr. Jaap Hamburger said at the pavilion’s unveiling as he described the friendship that evolved between the two men. Blackmore could be tenacious and outspoken, the cardiologist said, but it was all based on wanting to make the world a better place.
As Blackmore once told him, “If you’ve earned a lot of money it’s not yours to keep. It’s yours to give.”
Fellow cardiologist Dr. Larry Goldenberg said that, in Hebrew, the numbers one and eight have special significance. The Hebrew word for life is chai, and its numerical value is 18. The $18.4 million “gift of life” will allow VGH to make a big difference in the lives of many people.
Leon Judah Blackmore, who died in 2015, was one of seven children in an Orthodox Jewish family that fled Poland in one of the last ships to leave before Adolf Hitler’s occupation, Dr. Goldenberg said. Although they survived the Nazis’ barbaric occupation and murder of millions of Jews, the Holocaust deeply affected the family, creating a strong desire to build a better world. “When you have survived the war or Holocaust, where everything is taken away from you and you have to start all over, everything is appreciated,” Dr. Goldenberg said in a video about the donation. "You appreciate what people can do for you and what you can do for others."
“[Leon would] move mountains to help anyone he knew. He didn’t take no for an answer and made sure everyone was keep it honest," said Dr. Hamburger. "His pleasure was in spoiling other people.”
The family landed in Winnipeg where, Blackmore foundation board member Craig Sturrock said, young Leon “saw injustice, prejudice and what happens when people are disadvantaged.”
By his early twenties, Leon was a successful businessman but then lost it all, moving to Vancouver to start all over again with nothing to his name.
Along the way, he relied on the help of many people he couldn’t repay at the time but, once he was successful, he sought them out and made sure his debts were honoured.
In 2005, he turned a big portion of his assets into the Leon Judah Blackmore Foundation. With the help of people who soon became like family to him, that foundation generates revenue which is donated to various organizations. In 2007, he kickstarted the UBC law department’s Innocence Project “to find out if there are people factually innocent.” Its first case to come to court is currently seeking to overturn the 1983 conviction of First Nations teenager Phillip James Tallio, who was accused of murdering a child.
CEO Mary Ackenhusen said that Blackmore’s VGH donation is already at work for the benefit of patients. The hospital opened a new operating room with advanced imagery in the same room. The new diagnostic clinic at the Diamond Centre helps meet the growing demands for its programs.
“The transformable power of this gift is incredible,” Dr. Goldenberg said.
