1. David Oppenheimer was a Canadian businessman, investor, philanthropist, politician, and writer.
20 Facts About David Oppenheimer
1. 2.
David Oppenheimer was educated at the Collegiate School of Frankfurt am Main.
3.
In 1848, after political upheaval and bad harvests, David Oppenheimer immigrated to New Orleans with his sister Caroline Oppenheimer Stern and four brothers: Charles, Meyer, Isaac and Godfrey.
4.
David Oppenheimer studied bookkeeping and worked in a general store.
5.
David Oppenheimer then worked in real estate and the restaurant business in Columbia, California.
6.
David Oppenheimer was active in the Yale business community and entertained visiting dignitaries such as Governor-General Lord Dufferin.
7.
Since the gold rush had declined and railway construction had moved on, David Oppenheimer moved back to Victoria, British Columbia, and opened an import wholesale business with his brother Isaac in 1882.
8.
David Oppenheimer did extensive business with the Canadian Pacific Railway during its construction through the mountains of British Columbia in the 1880s, such as participating in a syndicate with Andrew Onderdonk to construct sections near Yale.
9.
David and Isaac Oppenheimer moved to Granville in 1885.
10.
In 1887, David Oppenheimer Brothers opened the first wholesale grocery business in the fledgling city, which still exists as The David Oppenheimer Group.
11.
In 1888, David Oppenheimer was acclaimed the second Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, serving until 1891.
12.
David Oppenheimer advocated city control of utilities and financed these projects by selling city bonds in London.
13.
David Oppenheimer lobbied for more parkland, playgrounds, completion of a city hospital and a Jewish section in the city's Mountain View Cemetery.
14.
Stanley Park was opened in 1888 while David Oppenheimer was Vancouver's mayor.
15.
David Oppenheimer focused on transportation improvement again by helping to establish the British Columbia Electric Railway plus encouraging steamboat links to Australia and the northern British Columbia Coast.
16.
David Oppenheimer promoted the British Columbia mining industry by publishing a pamphlet in England and the United States, as well as sending product samples to eastern Canada.
17.
David Oppenheimer attracted investment from Europe and industries such as the BCSugar Refinery and the Vancouver City Foundry.
18.
The David Oppenheimer family offered land to the Vancouver Jewish community for a synagogue, the Congregation B'nai Yehuda, which was located at Pender and Heatley Streets in the Strathcona neighbourhood, then the focus of the city's Jewish community.
19.
David Oppenheimer died on December 31,1897, of heart failure at the age of 63.
20.
David Oppenheimer was buried next to his second wife, Julia, in the Salem Fields Cemetery of Brooklyn, New York.