Real estate developer and philanthropist Peter Wall dies at 87
Local real estate developer and philanthropist Peter Wall died on March 2 at 87, the Wall Financial Corporation confirmed in a statement. Wall is known for helping build some of Vancouver’s downtown core, including One Wall Centre, once Vancouver’s tallest tower. He is survived by his wife, two children, grandson, nephew and ex-wife.
“UBC gratefully honours the life of our friend Peter Wall,” UBC President and Vice-Chancellor Benoit-Antoine Bacon wrote in a statement.
A “flamboyant” and “prescient” local figure, Wall is known on campus for enacting the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (PWIAS), through a donation he made to UBC in 1991. It is valued at over $200 million today in Wall Financial Corporation shares, the largest donation by an individual ever made to UBC.
“Peter Wall’s legacy is woven into the very fabric of Vancouver. His bold vision, boundless generosity, and unwavering commitment to excellence have left an indelible mark on the city he so dearly loved,” the Wall Financial Corporation said in a statement on Thursday.
Born in Ukraine to a Mennonite family, Wall spent his childhood moving around eastern Europe in the midst of World War II before coming to Canada as a refugee in 1948.
Wall became the Wall Financial Corporation’s majority owner in the late 1980s with a 56 per cent stake, when the company sealed its first major downtown site. By January 2008, its annual revenue was $199.5 million, with a net income of $24.5 million. The corporation has been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1973, originally founded as Wall & Redekop Corp in 1969 by Wall and his cousin.
Over the course of his life, Wall donated $100 million to UBC. Every year UBC presents nearly $4 million in Peter Wall Legacy Awards, including Wall Fellowships and Wall Research Awards, launched in 2022.
Wall never received a formal post-secondary education but his donation of $15 million to UBC to establish PWIAS received him an honorary PhD in return.
In January 2020, an external review of the institute found its governance was out of alignment with standard practice, initiating calls to update them and increase community engagement with students and faculty.
In April 2024, the Senate voted on the disestablishment of PWIAS, first formed in 1994.
“This is a crucial moment in the life of the Institute. While it should and can be a place that brings reputational luster to the university, it has instead become — hopefully only for a moment — a reputational liability,” the final report read.
Subsequently, an academic committee was formed to decide the future of PWIAS and a consensus was reached that the university should explore the creation of a new UBC Institute of Transdisciplinary Studies.
“It is hard to imagine UBC today without our culture of interdisciplinary thinking, innovation and research excellence, which was first empowered by Peter’s extraordinary foresight and his ongoing support,” wrote Bacon. “UBC is grateful for such generosity—and for its enduring impact.”
“His contribution will enrich the scholarly and cultural life of UBC for generations to come.”
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