Real estate investor and philanthropist Howard Silver and wife Lisa Johnson honour Howard’s father and inspire their children with a $1-million gift to The Ottawa Hospital
Howard Silver doesn’t like being in the spotlight, but he recognizes there are times when it’s important to step forward — and this is one of them.
“I’m really doing this for our children and for the next generation,” he says.
Howard is referring to the recent $1-million gift he and his wife, Lisa, made to The Ottawa Hospital’s Campaign to Create Tomorrow. The contribution comes from a deeply personal place. His two daughters were born at the century-old Civic Campus, and his father, Leon Silver, passed away at the General Campus at age 59 from colon cancer.
“I took him to all his appointments in the last year of his life,” Howard says. “And during the last two months of his life, my siblings and I took turns sleeping in the hospital at night so he would not be alone. We tried to make sure our father had all the care and attention we felt he deserved.”
A turquoise blue lounge chair became Howard’s bed each night, while his days were spent at the office. Every free moment was at his father’s side. During that stretch, Howard became ill himself, and that became a turning point.
“I decided I needed to completely change my life. I needed to do something sort of drastic, so I decided to start running.”
Howard has since run more than a dozen half marathons and full marathons. “It hurt,” he admits with a smile, “but I did it. It’s mind over matter.”
A legacy of hard work and giving back
Howard credits his father Leon with instilling in him that “get it done” attitude.
“He taught me never to take anything for granted,” says Howard. “That’s probably one of the top reasons why I’ve seen success. As good as it is, it can always be better.”
Leon was an accountant by training and came to Canada from Barbados with very little. He built a life for himself and his family through hard work, integrity, and service. Leon co-founded the family real estate company, The Silver Group, with Howard and his sister Sharon in the early 1990s and remained deeply involved in community life, including helping to establish the Black Canadian Scholarship Fund along with other charitable work.
Howard carries that legacy forward. “My father was really big on giving back as much as you can,” he says. “And I would say the last eight or nine years, Lisa and I have really tried to pick charities that will impact the community as much as we can.”
A gift for the future — and for his children
While Howard’s company has supported many causes over the years, from Ronald McDonald House to the Boys and Girls Club to name a few, this transformational gift to the Campaign to Create Tomorrow, he says, is different.
“I was speaking a few months ago to Mike Runia, who is on the executive of the Campaign to Create Tomorrow and was wondering what we could do as a family to make a difference.”
Driving by the site of the new hospital campus on a regular basis, Howard began to reflect on what this hospital could mean — not just for Ottawa and its residents today, but for this country and for the generations to come tomorrow.
“It will create a much better outcome for patients and for their families, especially with single-patient rooms. And who knows, in the next 20 years, with added research facilities attracting even more world-leading researchers, we will have more cures. I think the day this hospital opens, it’s going to transform our city.”
He sees this as a moment for Ottawa’s business community to step up.
“This campaign needs the businesspeople who have the means to participate. Because otherwise, everybody stands back and says, ‘Who’s gonna do it?’”
Honouring his father’s legacy
For Howard, this gift is also an opportunity to teach his children what success really means. He and his partner, Lisa Johnson, have a blended family with four children ranging in age from 15 to 32.
“In the Jewish religion we say it’s important to be a mensch. And a mensch means being part of the community and being someone who really does give back.”
More than that, it allows Howard to celebrate the man who taught him that important lesson: his business partner, his mentor, his father.
“I thought this was a great way to honour my father’s input in my success by honouring his legacy. Who would have thought 30 years ago that today I would be in a position to donate a million dollars to anything, let alone an infrastructure project like this that will transform healthcare?”
“I think it’s amazing,” he says, “and I’m honoured to be part of it.”
