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The number of buildings in Edmonton named after Irving Kipnes provides a glimpse into his influence on his adopted home, as well as his range of philanthropic interests: the University of Alberta’s Dianne and Irving Kipnes Health Research Academy and Dianne and Irving Kipnes Urology Centre, the CapitalCare Kipnes Centre for Veterans, and the forthcoming Oshry-Kipnes Jewish Community Centre. There’s also the five-storey Kipnes Lantern at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, a testament to the influence of its namesake beyond Edmonton.
But the scale of the real-estate developer and liquor magnate’s imprint on Edmonton far exceeds the several facilities bearing the Kipnes name. Over the past 65 years, Mr. Kipnes played an outsized role in physically shaping Edmonton into the sprawling metropolis of today, as the owner of Delcon Development Group, which also oversaw developments in Calgary and Scottsdale, Ariz.
“A lot of the south side of Edmonton would have been crafted in a way that Irv envisioned it, simply because he made it happen and was just determined over a longer haul,” said Craig Corbett, a business associate of Mr. Kipnes and close friend of almost 20 years. “That’s the real estate game in general, but he did it at scale.”
Mr. Kipnes’s family foundation also contributed millions of dollars to the Alberta Cancer Foundation, University Hospital Foundation, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Citadel Theatre, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton Opera, the Jewish Archives and Historical Society of Edmonton, and the Beth Shalom Synagogue, among other beneficiaries.
“If you just drive around Edmonton, it’s hard to drive for five minutes without seeing a building or an organization that has benefited from their time or generosity,” added Mr. Corbett, who described Mr. Kipnes as a “boss, mentor and quasi-grandfather.”
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Philanthropists Irving and Dianne Kipnes in their Edmonton office on May 16, 2007.John Ulan/The Globe and Mail
Irving Kipnes died in Edmonton on Oct. 19 of kidney failure at the age of 90. He leaves his daughters, Rozanne Kipnes and Ronee Kipnes; stepdaughter, Kendra Walker; seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and extended family. Mr. Kipnes was predeceased by his spouse of 36 years, Dr. Dianne Kipnes, and son, Harry Kipnes.
Throughout his life, Mr. Kipnes was hyperfocused on his twin passions: business and philanthropy. “He didn’t have any hobbies,” Ms. Walker said. “There was no sudoku. There was no music.” Dr. Kipnes, who earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Fielding University in Santa Barbara, Calif., was the “impetus for their support for the arts,” according to Mr. Corbett, who once served as board chair of Edmonton Opera. “Irv and Dianne had an awesome partnership in life, business and philanthropy.”
Mr. Kipnes’s passion for philanthropy extended to his social circle. “To be associated with him, you had to be a giver,” said lawyer and business partner David Margolus, a longtime friend. “If you were involved with him and you had a cause and he was close with you, he would want to give to that cause.”
Mr. Margolus, now 76, was a 28-year-old lawyer representing Delcon when he first met Mr. Kipnes. The two men had much in common. Both had lost their parents when they were in their early 20s and shared a strong work ethic that often resulted in late nights at the office. Mr. Margolus described himself as a “young, green lawyer” at the time, whereas Mr. Kipnes was already a well-established businessman.
Decades later, Mr. Kipnes’s extraordinary fastidiousness in reviewing legal paperwork stands out to Mr. Margolus. “He was the only client then, and the only client to this day that would read every line. He would sit across from me – he’d have his document, I’d have mine, and he’d ask me what this meant, what that meant, and what this Latin term meant,” Mr. Margolus recalled. “I learned more law from him than I did in law school.”
Mr. Kipnes was born in Calgary on Sept. 10, 1936, to Harry and Rose Kipnes, Russian-Jewish immigrants who fled antisemitism from territory located in modern-day Ukraine. In Calgary, the elder Mr. Kipnes owned a confectionery shop. Mr. Margolus said that Mr. Kipnes’s philanthropy was rooted in his Jewish upbringing, referring to the Jewish liturgical concept of tzedakah, which obliges all Jews to donate a portion of their earnings to charity.
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When he was 18, Mr. Kipnes moved to Edmonton to study chemical engineering at the University of Alberta, and soon began working for Imperial Oil. In 1962, he got into the real estate development business. “He got bored being an engineer,” Mr. Corbett said. “He liked actually building things. I used to walk construction sites with him. He got a kick out of taking raw land and 10 years later, there’s 4,000 families there.”
Mr. Kipnes met social worker Dianne Walker (née McFarlane) in 1977 when he stopped in Montreal for dinner with mutual friends on the way back from a trip to Israel. At the time, Mr. Kipnes was married to his first wife, Brenda Kipnes (née Bishop), the mother of his children, and Dianne was married to her first husband, David Walker. The Walkers eventually moved to Edmonton, but their marriage ended. Dianne soon reconnected with Mr. Kipnes, who had also recently become single.
Kendra Walker was a preteen when her mother started dating Mr. Kipnes. “I loved my little life with my mom, so I was obviously not too impressed when he came on the scene,” she recalled, adding that she rejected his efforts to assume a “father figure role.”
Ms. Walker, who left to study abroad when she was 18 and now lives in Paris, came to develop a “profound respect” for her stepfather through years of visits home. “He taught me so many lessons, and I think one of them is how to love someone who you’re not obliged to love as your parent, but you love them anyway as your parent,” she said.
Irving and Dianne Kipnes got married in 1988, with the couple vowing to spend half of their time on charitable projects. Their wedding came at the tail end of a rough patch for Mr. Kipnes’s business empire. A year earlier, he was president of North West Trust, a fund he cofounded, when it was taken over by the Alberta government after losing millions of dollars due to collapsing real estate values and defaulted mortgages, with the federal government providing bailout funds to the tune of $275-million.
But after premier Ralph Klein privatized Alberta liquor sales in 1994, Mr. Kipnes sensed a chance at redemption, founding the Liquor Depot, which grew from a single store in Edmonton into a publicly traded North American behemoth, with locations from Kentucky to Alaska. “Irv could just see an opportunity and chase it,” said Mr. Corbett, who served as an executive vice-president for Liquor Depot’s parent company, Liquor Stores N.A. In 2014, when Mr. Kipnes retired from the company’s board, its chairperson was Mr. Klein’s former treasurer, Jim Dinning.
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While they’re dwarfed by his charitable contributions, Mr. Kipnes also made substantial political contributions, chief among them to the former Alberta PC party, but also contributed varying sums to the UCP, Alberta NDP and Alberta Party, according to Elections Alberta financial disclosures. Mr. Margolus described his late friend’s political views as more akin to the moderate Toryism of former PC premier Peter Lougheed than the hard-right populism of Premier Danielle Smith. “Like every developer, you probably give to both parties,” Mr. Margolus surmised.
Mr. Kipnes was close friends with former Edmonton mayor and provincial health minister Stephen Mandel, who shared Mr. Kipnes’s real estate background. The pair first met playing on a team that Mr. Kipnes had sponsored in a Jewish baseball league and have been close ever since. “Irv was instrumental in me getting involved in politics and philanthropy. He’s always thought that nobody should wander through life and not give back,” Mr. Mandel said.
Mr. Kipnes supported Mr. Mandel’s mayoral aspirations, in addition to Mr. Mandel’s brief tenure as a PC MLA and leadership of the Alberta Party. “It really was not a political relationship at all. It was a friendship,” Mr. Margolus said, adding that the pair and their wives were “as close as can be.” After Mr. Mandel’s daughter Rachel died of lymphoma in 2017, the Kipneses established the Rachel Mandel Lymphoma and Blood Cancers Research Fund with a $1-million donation that was matched by the Alberta Cancer Foundation.
When he announced a $25-million donation to establish the Dianne and Irving Kipnes Health Research Institute in September 2025, Mr. Kipnes reflected on his philosophy of philanthropy.
“Giving back – whether with your time, your ideas, or your resources – is one of the most meaningful things you can do. It connects you to something larger than yourself. It ensures that the values you hold dear will carry forward, long after you’re gone,” Mr. Kipnes said. “My goal has always been simple: leave things better than I found them.”
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