(ATR) Just hours after the flame was lit in Ancient Olympia for the Vancouver Olympics, the flame goes out for a man who helped make the Games possible. VANOC chair Jack Poole is dead after a long battle against pancreatic cancer.
Poole led the bid for the Vancouver Olympics as chairman, then remained in the same position for the organizing committee when Vancouver was awarded the Games in 2003.
Obviously too ill to travel to Olympia, Poole was mentioned in remarks by IOC President Jacques Rogge at the flame lighting ceremony Thursday.
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, also attending the ceremony, told a reporter that Poole was on his mind as he watched the flame for 2010 ignite.
"I was sitting there waiting for it to light, and to be candid, I closed my eyes and I thought about Jack and Darlene (Poole) and wished they were there,” Campbell said, “and opened my eyes and, whoosh, there it was.”
Poole was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. While he managed to lead some board meetings while fighting the disease, he participated by telephone for others and was not able to attend the last two meetings. The VANOC board will eventually meet to decide a successor. During Poole's medical absences, B.C. government-appointed director Rusty Goepel was acting chairman.
There was no immediate word about funeral services.
Poole was born April 14, 1933 in tiny Mortlach, Saskatchewan, where he was a talented junior hockey defenseman. Dreams of a National Hockey League career disappeared when he was hit by a car and suffered a badly broken leg.
He began a career in construction and eventually rose to prominence in the 1970s but his company bankrupt amid the early 1980s real estate collapse. He rebuilt his career with the real estate arm of Bell Canada before launching the Vancouver Land Corporation, eventuallyforming hiscurrent business,Concert Properties.
Poole, who was also known as a philanthropist, was named to the Order of British Columbia in 2003 and Order of Canada in 2006. In February 2008, members of the Four Host First Nations honored Poole with the Coast Salish name Eskwukwelayakalh Stamsh (“Pool-Warrior”).
A Tribute to Jack Poole -- ATR Special Photo Gallery
Around the Rings Audio:
Jack Poole answers a question at a March 2003 news conference concerning the $600 million expansion of the Sea-to-Sky Highway needed for the Vancouver Olympics.
Click to listen.
Written by Ed Hula and Bob Mackin.
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