Nickle Family Foundation
Nickle Family Foundation is a private charitable foundation incorporated in
the
Skip to: Carl Nickle
Sam Nickle was an entrepreneur,
and a pioneer of
Sam Nickle's father was a custom shoemaker who
followed the routes of the early railroads to practice his trade, eventually
settling in
While the family lived in
Shortly after Sam and
Olga's wedding, the entire Nickle family moved briefly to
He first caught the
"oil bug" in the 1920's, investing in oil exploration in the
Using his
In 1944 when he had
established a financial base and a reputation in the oil business, he founded
Anglo American Oils and ventured into oil exploration in
Like the western Canadian
oil industry as a whole, Sam Nickle's ventures had their ups and downs. Indeed,
he did not achieve independent wealth until he was 70 years of age. Past the
age at which most men retire, he continued building and finally merged his
businesses into Canadian Gridoil Limited.
Perhaps because of his
years of struggle, Sam was exceedingly generous with his wealth. In addition to
countless private gifts, Sam and Olga Nickle were founding contributors to the Calgary
Foundation in the late 1950s. Later, in 1962, Sam created the SCN
Foundation. Between the SCN Foundation and its successor, the Nickle Family
Foundation, some $20 million has been invested in strengthening the community.
To celebrate his 81st birthday, Sam donated $1 million to the
University of Calgary for the creation of a museum.
In 1971 S. C. Nickle Sr.
was awarded an honourary
doctorate by the
(This is largely an abridged version of an
article which appeared in The University of Calgary Gazette,
January 18, 1979)
Carl Nickle was born in
Winnipeg in 1914. He came to Calgary as a boy with his parents, Sam and Olga
Nickle, where he was raised and educated.
The family was far from wealthy. In 1936, in the
depths of the Great Depression, Carl was a student at Mount Royal College. He
was anxious to continue his studies, but did not have the money to pay his
tuition fees. The principal allowed him to remain anyway — a gesture Carl never
forgot.
In 1937 Carl left his job
as a reporter with CFCN radio to launch, with sixty-five dollars in capital, a
newsletter: Nickle's Daily Oil Bulletin. After the early years of
struggles, the Daily Oil Bulletin eventually became the
"Bible" of the oil industry.
The 1947 Leduc oil
discovery blew the lid off the industry, and the Daily Oil Bulletin as well.
Subscription orders poured in from governments in Canada, the United States,
and Europe, as well as investment houses, companies and banks. In 1948 Carl,
with co-founder Les Rowland, began a second publication, Oil in Canada.
Carl was elected to the House
of Commons as a Progressive Conservative member in a 1951 by-election, and was
re-elected in the 1953 general election. He retired from Parliament in 1957, in
the wake of the "Great Pipeline Debate", over the routing of a
trans-Canada natural gas pipeline. In Alberta he fought for, and eventually
witnessed, the development of a pipeline network linking the province's natural
gas resources to markets in Eastern Canada and the United States. He had formed
his own oil & gas company, Conventures, and served
on the boards of directors of many companies in Canada and the
Carl's first love was
numismatics. He created a major collection of ancient coins. Parts of this
collection were later donated to the Glenbow Museum
in Calgary, and the Provincial Museum in Edmonton. In 1970, the main part of
the collection, worth at the time approximately $1 million, was donated to the
Nickle Arts Museum. That gift in effect matched his father's donation of funds
for the construction of the Museum.
Carl became involved in
many community organizations including the Boy Scouts, the Calgary
Philharmonic, the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, and the Calgary Chamber of
Commerce. In 1955 he established the Nickle Foundation, which among other
things provided scholarships to needy students. Carl's father Sam established a
charitable foundation as well, in 1962. After Sam's death in 1971, Carl was
president of both foundations, and in consultation with the family, merged them
to create the Nickle Family Foundation. Carl served as president of the
Foundation until 1988.
In recognition of his
public service, and his contributions to the university, Carl was awarded an honourary doctorate by the
Carl Nickle died in
December 1990 at the age of 76 years.
Sam and Olga Nickle had
four children: Sam Jr. (1913-1994), Carl (1914-1990), Olga (1916-2005), and
Agnes (1917-1998). Sam Sr. invited all four to join in the work of his
Foundation. Ultimately three, Carl, Olga and Agnes, became actively involved,
with Olga serving on the Board for 28 years until her retirement in 2000.
Carl’s wife, Diana, served as President of our Foundation from 1988 until her
passing in 2004.
Sam & Olga’s
grandchildren, representing the family's third generation, guided our
Foundation for many years. And in their turn, the fourth generation now has a
majority of the seats on our Board of Directors. It is our intention to
continue our work into the future, and to turn over a strong and vibrant
Foundation to the fifth and subsequent generations.
Sam Nickle's daughter Agnes, with her great-grandchildren, on the occasion of her 80th birthday, September 1997.
Nickle
Family Foundation