Edgar Fosburgh Kaiser Jr. (July 5, 1942 – January 11, 2012) was an

American-Canadian American Canadians are Canadians of American descent. The term is most often used to refer to Canadians who migrated from or have ancestry from the United States. Demography According to the 2016 Census, 29,590 Canadians reported American as ...

financier and a former owner of the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team.

Biography

Kaiser was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, on July 5, 1942, and was the grandson of shipbuilding industrialist

Henry J. Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of ...

. He earned a BA degree from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and an MBA degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Kaiser served as a White House Fellow and as a Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, President

Richard M. Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

, and as a Special Assistant to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel. He became a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

citizen in 1980. He died on January 11, 2012.

Denver Broncos

Kaiser purchased the Broncos from the

Gerald Phipps Gerald Phipps (March 4, 1915 – August 6, 1993) was a businessman, President of Gerald H. Phipps, Inc., a construction company, and owner of the Denver Broncos American football club from 1961 to 1981. Phipps and Cal Kunz purchased the Broncos fro ...

’ family in February

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

for $29 million. He sold his 60.8% share of the Broncos to late owner Pat Bowlen in March

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

for $78 million.
/ref> He then sued Bowlen for violating the original sales’ agreement, which he contended granted him right of first purchase of any sale of shares in the team. Kaiser claimed Bowlen violated this agreement by offering former Broncos quarterback

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American professional football executive and former quarterback who is the president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Elway played college f ...

a 10% stake of the company that holds ownership of the team. In 2004, a jury ruled in favor of Kaiser, and a federal judge decreed that Kaiser was entitled to purchase back 10% of the Broncos using the identical purchase terms offered to Elway. Bowlen appealed the original verdict that ruled in favor of Kaiser and won the appeal, as the

appellate court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

ruled that the structure of the Bowlen-Elway deal did not violate the original agreement.

Business career

Kaiser held several corporate positions during his life, including chief executive officer of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based Kaiser Resources Ltd, the family holding company. Kaiser Resources' coal assets were sold to British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation and Ashland Oil Canada to

Dome Petroleum Dome Petroleum Limited was a Calgary-based oil and gas company. Founded in 1950 as a subsidiary of the Toronto company Dome Mines Limited, Dome was built by Jack Gallagher, who remained with the company until 1983. In 1988 Dome was purchased by ...

. Kaiser served as Chairman and CEO of the

Bank of British Columbia There have been two British Columbian/Canadian banks with the name Bank of British Columbia. The first bank: 1862–1901 The first was established by Royal Charter in 1862, with its head office in London.Historical Essays on British Columbia'. M ...

from 1984 until the bank's 1986 demise. He also served on the board of directors of several large Canadian companies.

The Kaiser Foundation

In 1985, Edgar Kaiser Jr. established the Kaiser Foundation (unrelated to the American Henry J.

Kaiser Family Foundation KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), also known as The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, is an American non-profit organization, headquartered in San Francisco, California. It prefers KFF since its legal name can cause confusion as it is no longer a ...

). It is a North Vancouver, British Columbia-based organization established as a Canadian national organization, operated separately from other ventures of the Kaiser family, with the goal of promoting the understanding and importance of mental health and addictions as health issues. It has also established the Kaiser Mental Health and Addictions Awareness Foundation and the Aboriginal Peoples' Health Initiative.

References

External links

*
Rockburn Presents - Edgar Kaiser Jr.
' (video, 30 mins.), Interview with Ken Rockburn, Cable Public Affairs Channel, August 9, 2011 * Vicki O’Brien:
The Reinvention of Edgar Kaiser Jr.
', BCBusiness, December 1, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Edgar Jr. 1942 births 2012 deaths Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon American emigrants to Canada Canadian financial businesspeople Naturalized citizens of Canada Denver Broncos owners Henry J. Kaiser Harvard Business School alumni Stanford University alumni