Feature Article

LIFETIME OF REAL ESTATE HOLDS MANY MEMORIES

Written By: Jean Leslie
Published By: Calgary Real Estate News
Article Used with permission of the Calgary Real Estate Board. © Copyright Calgary Real Estate News, 2007
2004-09-30

His father, Vincent Hawkes, arrived in Calgary in 1902 at the age of 16 and entered the real estate business in 1909. Deals must have been good for he soon married and bought a four bedroom house at 132- 26 Avenue S.W. They thought it was beautiful, although it sat on a dirt road with a board sidewalk.

During the 1920s when Calgary’s population was about 65,000 Vincent Hawkes operated Capital Land in three different locations in the downtown core of the city.

Doug became a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1941 to 1945 including 15 months as a prisoner of war. When he was discharged from the RCAF he travelled to farms all over Western Canada with substitute parts for farm machinery left short by war demands.

After three years he met a fellow prisoner of war, Bill Rowbotham with whom he had spent some time in Stalag IVB, Germany. Bill was happy that he had found a new type of employment, the real estate business, with Campbell&Haliburton.;

When Doug asked if he was making any money Bill’s reply was, "I've made $600 already this month and I am only allowed to list."

"I was making $200 a month so I quickly applied with Campbell&Haliburton; even though my father still had his own agency. Because of my farm machinery experience I thought I would do well selling farm property but I soon noticed that Ervie Jackson, Jack Rich, Bill Rowbotham, Jack Ryan, Pip Hamilton and others were busier than I, selling residential properties. I did the same, and after a few deals bought a new car, paid off my debts and had money in the bank," Hawkes said.

"Earl Campbell and Jack Haliburton believed in advertising, telling the public they were in business and had buyers," Hawkes said.

They were also boosters of the co-operative way of doing business and Doug joined the Calgary Real Estate Board in 1950. He recalls there was very little education in the real estate business in the early stages but he took the Dale Carnegie Course which he considers the turning point in his business career.

He remembers that about that time salespeople like Ervie Jackson and Jack Rich started up their own businesses so did Doug and Les Grieg of an old established real estate firm, decided to form their own agency in 1953.

Hawkes and Greig’s claim to fame was finding a contractor who was starting a new house in south Mount Royal. Doug and Les would talk to him about an improvement to his plan and proposed that if the contractor took their advice they would require an exclusive listing until 30 days after it was completed. They were asked to leave several sites. But later that evening they would get a phone call to come around in the morning to tell them about the new improvement. Their new idea was something we now all take for granted - the master bedroom bathroom.

With this approach they sold six or seven houses averaging about $30,000. Very good for real estate in the 1950s.

In about 1975, Hawkes formed a real estate syndicate that sold the property where #11 Equipment Depot of the RCAF had stood, and later, a property that is now known as The Glencoe Golf Club. Then followed buying a 100% corner in Fort McMurray a town in the centre of the Tar Sands development. This led to an interesting excursion into the oil business. He formed a company that soon had four drilling rigs. Two had drilled one well each. They were built to work in weather that could be -50 F or 90 F above but by the time they had them operating in the U.S., Trudeau’s National Petroleum Policy left them, as Doug describes it, "with the equivalent of Cadillacs for lease when the industry was looking for second hand Fords."

He returned to the real estate business in 1982 under Doug Hawkes Realty, when he and his wife Dorothy sold most of Mrs. Esther Honen’s property. Honen, a Calgary philanthropist, developed the Honens International Piano Competition, one of the most prestigious events of its kind. She and her husband developed their real estate holdings along 17th Avenue S.W. Honen used the proceeds to sponsor a piano competition in perpetuity, through the Calgary Foundation.

Doug was made an Honorary Life Director of the Calgary Foundation in recognition of being the instigator of its formation in 1955.

Doug Hawks served on the Calgary Real Estate Board for several years on many committees and was its fourteenth president. He represented the Calgary Real Estate Board in the Calgary Chamber of Commerce where his suggestion to form a Hire-a-Student division became a national program.

Many "old - timers" will understand Doug’s feeling when he says, "I attended a Canadian Real Estate Board convention when they talked about computerizing the industry. I left the business when we still sorted listings by hand, and I'm glad I did."

-Jean Leslie is the author of two books, Glimpses of Calgary Past and Three Rivers Beckoned available at book stores. She married into the real estate business, J.C. Leslie&Co.; Ltd. in 1942.

This article was written for Calgary Real Estate News, a division of the Calgary Real Estate Board, for the series “Legends of Real Estate” showcasing important members of the Calgary Real Estate Board. Please visit the Calgary Real Estate Board online.This article is part of the collection of the Calgary Real Estate News. Please visit them online.