Max Bell

George Maxwell Bell (October 13, 1911 – July 19, 1972) was a Canadian newspaper publisher, race horse owner and philanthropist.

Bell was born October 13, 1911, in Regina, Saskatchewan.

He was the son of George Melrose Bell and Edna Mae Parkin and had one brother, Gordon and two sisters, Audrey and Olive.

His grandfather, George Alexander Bell, was a Canadian pioneer and Liberal minister in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

His father earned his fortune selling insurance and owned several newspapers and periodicals before losing much of his wealth investing in mining and oil.

Bell earned a degree in commerce from Montreal's McGill University during the Great Depression while working for his father at the Calgary Albertan newspaper during his summers.

After graduating in 1932, Bell moved to British Columbia where he unsuccessfully attempted to prospect for gold in the Kootenays for a time and played two seasons of senior hockey with the Kimberley Dynamiters.

He met and married his first wife, Suzanne Staples, during this time and in 1935 returned to Calgary.

He returned to the Albertan, earning $35 per week as the classified advertising manager.

He built his newspaper empire after inheriting the Calgary Albertan, and its $500,000 debt, from his father in 1936.

Bell inherited the paper upon his father's death in 1936, however the Albertan was under the control of the Royal Bank of Canada against $500,000 in loans that the elder Bell had made.

Additionally, Bell invested in an oil well near Turner Valley, Alberta.

When the well struck oil in mid 1936, the income from his one percent share was double that of his newspaper salary.

He formed several companies in the late 1940s which came to be worth millions of dollars when sold.

Bell was a long time owner of thoroughbred race horses.

He partnered with Frank McMahon to form two stables that won races across Canada, the United States and Europe.

He then convinced the Royal Bank to give him control, and in mid-1943, was made publisher of the Albertan.

Under Bell's leadership, the paper returned to profitability, prompting the partners in Essex to raise his salary to $85 per week.

Within three years, Bell was able to repay both his partners in Essex and purchase full control of the paper from the bank.

Almost immediately after repaying his partners, Bell convinced them to purchase the Edmonton Bulletin.

However, Bell lacked the capital to support the paper which was burdened with labour strife and aging equipment.

In 1944 he partnered with Frank McMahon and others forming Empire Petroleum Limited, in an unsuccessful attempt to raise capital to drill a wildcat well.

Two years later he tried again with two new companies, Reef Petroleum and Tower Petroleum.

The two new companies also failed to find oil, but the efforts raised enough money for Bell and his partners to form Calvan Petroleums on the heels of Imperial Oil's discovery of a large oil field at Redwater, Alberta.

The company found success trading in leases and drilling rights on crown land, prompting Bell to form several other oil companies in the years that followed.

He repaid the debt by 1945 and proceeded to purchase papers across the country, including the Ottawa Journal and The Globe and Mail.

Much of Bell's fortune was built on Alberta's burgeoning oil and gas industry.

In 1946, Canadian oilman Frank McMahon and Bell started Alberta Distillers Limited in Calgary, Alberta.

Despite the oil strike, Bell continued to work for the Royal Bank at the Albertan.

After seven years of what he called "clerking", he made a bid to regain his family's control of the paper.

He convinced five friends in the oil and gas industry to form the Essex Company and put up $35,000 to operate the paper.

He made the decision to fold the paper in 1951.

While he worked to regain control of the Albertan, Bell also continued to invest in oil ventures.

In 1951, Bell amalgamated his various companies into Calvan Consolidated Ltd. The new company held an interest in 77 wells at the Redwater field.

He sold Calvan to Petrofina in 1955 for $40 million and, while he continued to trade in oil and gas companies for several years, his focus returned to the newspaper business.

Bell purchased the Victoria Times Colonist in 1959 for $750,000, and one year later built a plant to print both the Times and The Colonist, which he gained control of in 1953 for $1 million.

He was best known as the co-founder of FP Publications, Canada's largest newspaper syndicate in the 1960s.

The pair joined with singer Bing Crosby to win the Irish Derby in 1965 while he and McMahon won the 1968 Queen's Plate.

Bell was a part owner of several race tracks, including Balmoral Park, of which he became the first Canadian president.

A noted philanthropist, he established the Max Bell Foundation shortly before his death, which has awarded millions of dollars in grants for medical, veterinary, sporting and educational causes.