Tom Crist is the wealthiest lottery winner in Calgary history; but he won’t be for much longer.
The recently retired 64-year-old plans to give away every penny of the $40 million windfall he landed in May playing LOTTO Max — a subscription-based lottery game.
Crist will spread his winnings across many charities over a number of years. He has no idea which organizations yet, except for one: the Tom Baker Cancer Centre.
Crist’s wife, Jan, died of lung cancer in February 2012, aged 57.
“Tom Baker will be one of them because they treated her,” Crist said.
“Tom Baker’s dear to my heart, no question.”
The news may come as a shock to the Calgary care facility. Crist hasn’t told a soul about his winnings until now, not even his four children, although they will now help him choose charities and manage donations.
“It’s just going to unfold next year, so we’ll decide as a family what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it,” he said.
“The nice part is you can keep donating for years and years. It’ll be in my family trust … and we’ll just carry on.”
Crist was golfing in Palm Springs when he took the call about his win. He was “speechless” for a moment, but knew immediately he wouldn’t keep his winnings.
“I’m fortunate enough that I’ve done well for myself … financially. I don’t need the money.”
Crist has been playing LOTTO Max for about five years, but confessed to being passive subscriber.
“I just renew it every year,” he said.
“They send me a notice and I pay them. I don’t know what numbers I won on, I don’t even pay attention. I just pay them every year and I know I’ve got a ticket.
“Sometimes I’d get a cheque for $10 or $20, but I never expected this.”
Calgary’s lottery record was previously held by a city couple who won $30 million in February.
Crist retired as president and chief executive of electronics company EECOL in September.
After an extended holiday in Southeast Asia in the new year, he will turn his attention to the donations, starting with the Tom Baker centre.
“I’ll go up and talk to them about how we can utilize the money. How do we get something in memory of (Jan)?”
So while Crist may soon relinquish the title of Calgary’s wealthiest lottery winner, he make take some beating to be eclipsed as its richest.
He knows his late wife would think so.
“She’d be ecstatic (about donating the money),” he said.
“She’d think the same, guaranteed.”
Crist isn’t the only lucky lotto winner in this city.
Expectant mother Julie Kelly recently learned a Lotto 6/49 ticket she purchased on a whim netted her more than $1.6 million.
Kelly and her husband were filling up at the Safeway Gas Bar at 100-4915 130 Ave. S.E. in Calgary on Dec. 7 when she decided to buy the lotto ticket.
“I hardly ever play LOTTO 6/49,” Kelly said in a statement, adding she normally buys Lotto Max tickets. “I’ve maybe played five or six times in my life.”
When she checked her ticket on the Western Canada Lottery Corporation website, she learned all six numbers on one line of her Quick Pick ticket matched the winning numbers from the Dec. 7 draw, earning her more than $1.6 million of the $5 million jackpot.
There were two other winning tickets, in Ontario and Quebec.
“I called to my husband, ‘I think I won!’” she said.
The winnings will help the couple with holiday shopping as well as preparing for their new baby. They also hope to stow away some of the money possibly for a trip to Europe, a new vehicle, and a new home for the growing family, Kelly said.
“We want a place with a nice big backyard to play in.”
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