Includes audio report
Unlike most big lottery winners who spend days, or even months, trying to figure out how they'll spend their newfound riches, Tom Crist needed only a moment to decide where his $40 million in winnings would go: all to charity. Top on the list would be the medical center that cared for his late wife when she developed cancer.
Still, it took Crist more than six months to tell anybody — including family members — he'd won. The retired Calgary executive had been lunching between rounds of golf in Palm Springs when his cell phone rang and he was told the news.
"I was speechless," Crist, 64, said in a recorded interview with Canadian public radio station CBC. "I really didn't know what to say."
Crist hung up the phone, finished lunch and went back to golf.
"I knew where the money was going to go as soon as I got that call," he told the CBC. "I just didn't want the media, the press, all that kind of stuff. So I just kept putting it off and putting it off, and putting it off."
Finally at the behest of the Western Canada Lottery Corp., he agreed to go public and have his photo taken. The fine print on the lottery subscription he'd bought had demanded as much.
The shy and retiring senior showed up for his win photo in dark glasses and a baseball cap.
"They asked, 'Is that your natural look?'" Crist told the CBC. "I said, yep. That's all you're getting. You're not getting a smile, nothing."
The former CEO of EECOL Electric said he didn't need the money for himself or his family.
"I guess I've been fortunate enough through my career, you know, that I had, with the company that I was with, to be fortunate enough to have a good living and be able to remain to have a good living and look after my kids," he told Reuters. "So, I don't really need the money."
His plan was to donate his winnings in honor of his wife Jan, who died in February of 2012 after a long battle with lung cancer.
"It's very, very, very important," he told the CBC, his voice starting to crack. "Because, you know, we lost a wife, a mom and a grandma. She beat it for a while, six years, and it finally caught up with her."
All of which made it supremely important for Crist to donate to cancer treatment and research. "Cancer is dear to my heart because of what happened to her," he told the CBC. "This just gives me the opportunity to give back."
Crist delivered his first big check — $1.2 million — on Tuesday to the Alberta Cancer Foundation, which collects donations for Calgary's Tom Baker Cancer Centre, where Jan had been treated.
He strode into the ACF office, check in hand, without any prior warning, Phoebe Dey, a spokesperson for the foundation told NBC News.
"He surprised us," Dey said. "He said that this is phase one of his gifts and that his intention with us was to make an annual gift. He stressed that this was just the beginning and that he intended to give away all $40 million."
Crist's son, Dallas, told Global News Calgary that he only learned about the $40 million when his wife called after having seen a news report.
"You gotta tell a secret, that's the one guy you tell a secret to," Dallas told Global Calgary. "We had no idea. He didn't change one bit. We had no clue. He is the most secretive man on the planet."
"He'd do anything for anybody," Dallas Crist told Gobal News Calgary. "He'd give you the shirt off his back. He's my role model, for sure."
The donation, Dey said, "will go to enhance care for other patients. It will help an awful lot. He told us that he had been successful in life and already had enough money to take care of his family and that this is what his wife would have wanted. He was doing it in her name."
Though Crist acknowledges that his actions may spark generosity in others, "I'm not doing it because it's going to inspire somebody else," he told the CBC. "I'm doing it because that's what my heart tells me to do."
AUDIO: Listen to the interview
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Very Nice!! God Bless you Mr,Tom Crist
Classic! You Da Man Tom, that's the way to do it:
"That's all you're getting. You're not getting a smile, nothing."
Should've also worn a mustache, full beard, vulcan ears and a unibrow. Even better!
Wow, whay a guy.
I just hope he doesn't still get hounded despite having given it all away.
"Slap some on me".
"I gave it all away"
"No you didn't share the wealth."
I'm also wondering about that item in the Reader's Digest 13 Things Lottery Winners Won't Tell You that it's better to give annually than once. Maybe since Candaians aren't taxed on winnings, eh, it's a little different.
Great story indeed may God continue to bless you Mr. Crist
It really made me ill watching that Lottery show with those winners and their mansions and extravagances. This man here is a REAL winner in my book.
GREAT GUY!!! BUT, there is no way i would do this. This is going to upset a lot of people but Cancer research donations/contributions have turned out to be the BIGGEST charity scam in history. The medical center will do and obviously has done good work for for patients, including his ear late wife (may she rest in peace) and so i get it. And i'm sure some will benefit from his kindness. WHEN i win one day, and i decide to give to charity. I already have one stipulation, none of my money will go to any organization where its board members make over $200,000 a year. There is sooo much i would love to get into here regarding how these places work but time and space prohibits at this point.
GREAT GUY, GOOD HEART, RIGHT PRIORITIES!!! But not me, i'll find other more DIRECT ways to help and better the lives of many. Instead of fattening an already fat cow. (metaphorically speaking of course)
Congrats! Very cool story.
Very touching story of a selfless man. May God continue to bless him and his family. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and many blessings to come.
I hope the death of his wife has not adversely affected him.
I think its a fantastic move. We need more people with this kind of generosity; generosity from the heart!
Wow, Mr Crist is not only a winner in the lottery, he's a winner in life. I have total respect for him and wish him all the best, a class act human being hands down.
Good info. I need to add this to my future charity plans if I win big. I planned to check out the the charities but forgot about the BOD salaries.
Also, for those of you who plan to donate to an animal charity, a lot of the big national ones like PETA and the Humane Society are ripoffs and often care little about the animals. Donate to your local no kill rescue group or no-kill shelter.
Amen.
I think it was a particularly wise move to hide it from everyone, even his kids. Well, especially from his kids. Otherwise they may have made a move for the money.
Kind of reminds me of Warren buffett, who chose NOT to give loads of cash to his kids, and instead pledge to give it all away to charity before he dies in the The Giving Pledge.
Good move. Prepare them, educate them, help them if needed, but don't just give them or leave them tons of cash, it can spoil them. The son of a rich man is seldom a good man.
Speaking of Warren Buffett. In the news today they say he made $37 Million PER DAY in 2013.
Uh...no offense Tim with your $40M, or Ira with your $500K per day, but the super rich are in another category altogether.
Great story but they could of skipped the picture. Don't see what they gained by showing it.
I think it was required, he had to do it.
That's why I said he should have gone all out, like full ZZ Top or Duck Dynasty disguise to really piss off the marketing guys!
There are really nice people in the world..... Its a fact/reality that not everyone is greedy, selfish and materialistic. For those who have nothing but negative comments about chaitible services, have never been in need of charitible services. Pray that the day never comes where they and their families need the good will of great charities.
I too plan to donate to my favorite charity if I ever win a lottery jackpot. I have always donated to it since I started working back in high school.
He only donated the millons because he was the C.E.O. of a billion dollar company and well off to begin with in the first place. I would love to see if he would give it all to chairty if he was poor or middle class living pay check to pay check.
I wouldn't donate to most chairities if I had that kind of money, I'd rather set up a chairty org myself and distribute the money so I know where the money is really going.
He should be hospitalized, put under heavy sedation, placed in a padded cell, and given electro shock treatments three times a week. Something is wrong with this man.
He has kids, grandchildren, family. I can see giving 1/2 away and the rest to family members, but not the whole lot of money.
That is my opinion, I could be wrong?
I am quite inclined to agree with such perspective. People are acting like he was broke and purely out of altruism is giving his winnings away. No one knows his net worth, and by the sounds of it, it just might well be in the multi multi millions. Still a good move on his part, can't knock him for that. But come on people, the rich giving away new money because they have old money locked away is nothing new. Kudos to him for not being too greedy. But i'll be much more impressed if he needed the money, he said so himself.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.
So many people who are well off never give any money to help others. It's always more, more and more. It doesn't matter that this guy was well off, he couild have still just added to his wealth and that would have been that. When someone do a good deed from the heart, it's bad to try and down play or dismiss what a person does.
"But i'll be much more impressed if he needed the money, ......."
Would you still have been more impressed if he needed the money and wasted it on lottery tickets? There are lots of losers with gambling addiction doing that everyday.
I've only watched that show a couple of times and then stopped, I got way too jealous. If I won $40 million, there is no way in heck I'd give it ALL to charity. A few million, sure, but not all.
What a very nice man, hope his donations helps many cancer patients.
I agree. How about 800 deserving families who are trying but are hurting at the moment receiving 50,000 each to give them a little breathing room.
To me, that would have been more satisfying in my eyes. Especially right around Christmas.