B 24 OBITUARIES G TH E G LOBE AND M AIL | SATUR DAY , FEB RUARY 1, 2020

LEO KOLBER ANNE COX CHAMBERS

SENATOR, 90 DIPLOMAT, 100

LIBERAL FUNDRAISER Serving as U.S.

ambassador was
WAS A MAJOR FORCE ‘greatest honour’ for
newspaper heiress
BEHIND THE SCENES JEFF MARTIN ATLANTA

A
nne Cox Chambers, a newspaper
heiress, diplomat and philanthro-
pist who was one of the country’s
richest women, died on Friday at
the age of 100.
Ms. Chambers’s nephew, James Cox
Kennedy, announced her death to the At-
lanta Journal-Constitution, her company’s
flagship newspaper.
“Aunt Anne was a wonderful, kind and
elegant lady who cared deeply about her
family, her company and her country,”
said Mr. Kennedy, who served as Cox En-
terprises’ chief executive officer from 1988
to 2008 and continues as chairman. “She
took the responsibility of good fortune ve-
ry seriously and gave back to the best of
her ability to the many causes she cared
about.”
Ms. Chambers, a director of Cox Enter-
prises Inc., promoted Jimmy Carter’s polit-
ical career and served as U.S. ambassador
to Belgium during his presidency.
Forbes estimated her net worth several
years ago at nearly US$17-billion. She was
well known for her charitable giving, and
served on the boards of the Atlanta Arts
Alliance and the High Museum of Art,
among other institutions.
She was the daughter of James Middle-
ton Cox, the 1920 Democratic presidential
candidate and founder of Cox Enterprises.
Leo Kolber delivers his report on restoring investor confidence during a news conference in Ottawa in 2003. The privately held company has included
During his time as a senator from 1983 to 2004, he served as chairman of the standing Senate committee the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and oth-
on banking, trade and commerce. DAVE CHAN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL er newspapers, radio and TV stations, ca-
ble TV systems and other businesses.
Ms. Chambers and her mother and sib-
A close associate and honorary member of the Bronfman family, lings inherited the company when James
died in 1957.
he was reputedly the brains behind their fortune She owned a white-columned manor
across from the governor’s mansion in At-
LISA FITTERMAN time in 100 years that this had happened in Quebec lanta where Mr. Carter brought his daugh-
and I needed advice from people who’d been in- ter, Amy, over to swim in the pool. She also
volved in previous federal minority governments,” had an estate in France and a posh apart-

S
light, bespectacled and driven, former senator Mr. Charest said. “Leo was to the point. He said we ment in New York.
Leo Kolber was the ultimate behind-the- needed to govern, to not be shy about pushing ahead But while most of her wealthy friends
scenes player, a frustrated lawyer turned astute and making decisions. It was very good advice.” were Republicans, she remained a staunch
real estate developer and federal Liberal Party Democrat. At 89, she even knocked on
fundraiser who never forgot where he came from and doors for Barack Obama’s 2008 presiden-
always made sure to give back, be it to his alma mater, tial campaign, the newspaper reported.
McGill University, the Jewish General Hospital or the Ernest Leo Kolber was born in Montreal on Jan. 18, “I just don’t discuss politics with my
Montreal Symphony Orchestra. 1929, the elder of Moses and Luba (Kahan) Kolber’s friends. No use having fights,” she once
“He knew how to get to ‘yes,’ ” said L. Ian MacDo- two sons. His father was a dentist who practised out told Vanity Fair magazine.
nald, the editor and publisher of Policy magazine and of the family’s home on Villeneuve Street in the Plat- Georgia Republican Governor Brian
the co-author of Mr. Kolber’s 2003 memoirs, Leo: A eau neighbourhood, made famous by Mordecai Ri- Kemp issued a statement on Friday prais-
Life. “No one said ‘no’ to Leo.” chler, while his mother kept his father’s books. (Years ing Ms. Chambers, saying her “contribu-
A self-described “consigliere” to the Bronfman later, Mr. Kolber himself would become the author’s tions to the city of Atlanta and the state of
family, Mr. Kolber died at his home in Westmount, inspiration for Harvey Schwartz, the opportunistical- Georgia will be felt for generations to
Que., on Jan. 9 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. ly obsequious “pet cobra” of the Gursky family in the come.”
He was 90. 1990 novel, Solomon Gursky Was Here; the Bronfmans Ms. Chambers acknowledged her good
Mr. Kolber became best friends with Charles Bronf- were thought to be the template for the Gurskys.) fortune and said she felt an obligation to
man when both were students at McGill University in Young Leo learned to read by the age of 4, a feat give back.
the 1940s, when the latter was but a scion of the Sea- accomplished because it was thought he had a heart “Both of my parents were extremely
gram dynasty that began in the Prohibition era, and murmur and he was confined to bed and was so frag- caring people, so that I think growing up,
Mr. Kolber thought of his friend’s father, Sam Bronf- ile that he was even carried to and from the bath- well, there was the fact of feeling respon-
man, as his own. For his part, the older man saw room. Release only came after his parents called in a sible,” she said. “My father’s rich friends
something in Mr. Kolber: a willingness to work hard pediatrician, who needed only one look at the back of would complain about paying taxes, but
and take informed risks, an ability with money and a the little boy’s throat to determine all that was need- he used to say it was a privilege to pay tax-
commonsensical temperament that, if ed was for his tonsils and adenoids to es. In Russia, you’d never make enough
needed, would help to ground his own be removed. The experience turned money to pay those taxes.”
sons. For nearly 30 years young Leo into a lifelong, self-aware hy- Ms. Chambers’s support of Mr. Carter,
For nearly 30 years Mr. Kolber, who pochondriac, a state of mind that still who captured the Georgia governor’s of-
graduated from McGill with a law de- Mr. Kolber ... served didn’t stop him from travelling to coun- fice with her help in 1970 and the presi-
gree in 1952 and was called to the Que- as president of tries such as Pakistan and China with dency in 1976, won her an appointment as
bec Bar later that year, served as presi- CEMP Investments, Mr. Trudeau and others. U.S. ambassador to Belgium in 1977.
dent of CEMP Investments, the holding the holding “He had a cause-no-problem atti- “People all over had told me she
company of trusts that Sam Bronfman tude,” said retired senator Jack Austin, wouldn’t accept it,” Mr. Carter recalled in a
established for his children, and was al- company a former principal secretary to Mr. Tru- 1988 interview. “They said Anne didn’t like
so the chairman of Claridge Inc., the of trusts that Sam deau who tended to plan the trips. “He to go to banquets, didn’t like to meet large
family’s private management compa- Bronfman was very compatible, although I do re- numbers of people and absolutely would
ny. call he suffered from altitude sickness not make a speech, even to just a few peo-
established for his
Mr. MacDonald noted in a tribute he and slept as we went through the high ple. She was very timorous about public
wrote for Policy magazine that in his children, and was passes between Pakistan and China, events.”
two decades as an honorary Bronfman also the chairman missing some of the most beautiful There were also comments from critics
and the reputed brains behind the fam- of Claridge Inc., scenery in the world.” who said that Mr. Carter had vowed to pick
ily fortune, Mr. Kolber somehow man- Mr. Kolber was 16 when his father, professional diplomats to be his ambassa-
aged to tread a fine line between loyalty
the family’s private who had suffered a heart attack two dors.
to the dynasty that began in the Prohib- management years earlier, died. The son watched as But she did accept the job, joking later
ition era and the need to be his own company. the older man, bedridden and weak, that she didn’t realize her many conversa-
man. “Of everything he achieved, his worried about how to provide for his tions with Mr. Carter over the years “had
success in balancing those allegiances may be his last- family, and he became determined to choose a career been my interviews for an ambassador’s
ing legacy,” Mr. MacDonald wrote. where he did not have to rely on his hands. In his post.”
An ardent Liberal who counted former prime min- memoirs, he tells of how “I kept repeating to myself She called the appointment “the great-
isters Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Brian Mulroney that someday, somehow, somewhere I would be in a est honour and privilege of my life.”
among his friends, Mr. Kolber extended that ability to position where people, or money, or both, would Mr. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, ex-
the world of politics, too. work for me.” pressed condolences in a statement on Fri-
“I first met him in the House of Commons when he And they did – in spades. day, saying, “Ambassador Chambers was
was in Senate, around the time of the 1993 [federal Along the way, Mr. Kolber served as a director of a an important part of our lives for over six
Progressive Conservative] leadership race,” said Jean number of companies, including MGM (which the decades. Her life serves as a path for fair-
Charest, the former Tory leader and Liberal premier Bronfmans acquired in the 1960s), Loews Cineplex ness and equality for everyone and espe-
of Quebec. “He was a real gentleman who came up Entertainment and the Toronto-Dominion Bank. As a cially for women and girls. Atlanta, our
and said ‘I hope you do well.’ His view wasn’t partisan senator from 1983 to 2004, he served as chairman of State of Georgia, and the world has lost a
even though he was a Liberal. He had a broader view the standing Senate committee on banking, trade wonderful woman, business leader and
of the country.” and commerce, and he was named an officer of the philanthropist.”
Later, when Mr. Charest made the jump to provin- Order of Canada in 2008.
cial politics, Mr. Kolber offered to help him raise mon- In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ASSOCIATED PRESS
ey and support in the Jewish community; after play- called Mr. Kolber his “good friend and mentor.”
ing host to a successful fundraiser at the glamorous “He was an example to me, and countless others,
Windsor Station in downtown Montreal, he waited of the importance of working hard and looking out
and waited for the politician to contact him to say for the people around us.”
“Thank you.” Mr. Kolber leaves his second wife, Roni Hirsch;
“It took me a long time to do so and he was not children, Lynne Kolber Halliday and Jonathan Kol-
happy,” Mr. Charest recalled. “It was a real lesson for ber; brother, Sam Kolber; and four grandchildren. His
me, one that I never forgot.” first wife, Sandra Maizel, a writer, film consultant and
And in 2007, when the provincial Liberal Party be- the mother of his children, died in 2001.
came a minority government, Mr. Kolber was one of
the people Mr. Charest reached out to. “It was the first Special to The Globe and Mail

Anne Cox Chambers smiles after being

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