George Maxwell Bell (October 13, 1912 – July 19, 1972) was a Canadian newspaper publisher, race horse owner and philanthropist. He was best known as the co-founder of FP Publications, Canada's largest newspaper syndicate in the 1960s. He built his newspaper empire after inheriting the Calgary Albertan, and its $500,000 debt, from his father in 1936. He repaid the debt by 1945 and proceeded to purchase papers across the country, including the Ottawa Journal and The Globe and Mail. Much of Bell's fortune was built on Alberta's burgeoning oil and gas industry. He formed several companies in the late 1940s which came to be worth millions of dollars when sold. Bell was a long time owner of thoroughbred race horses. He partnered with Frank McMahon to form two stables that won races across Canada, the United States and Europe. The pair joined with singer Bing Crosby to win the Irish Derby in 1965 while he and McMahon won the 1968 Queen's Plate. Bell was a part owner of several race tracks, including Balmoral Park, of which he became the first Canadian president. A noted philanthropist, he established the Max Bell Foundation shortly before his death, which has awarded millions of dollars in grants for medical, veterinary, sporting and educational causes. Early life Bell was born October 13, 1912 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He was the son of George Melrose Bell and Edna Mae Parkin and had one brother, Gordon and two sisters, Audrey and Olive. His grandfather, George Alexander Bell, was a Canadian pioneer and Liberal minister in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. His father earned his fortune selling insurance and owned several newspapers and periodicals before losing much of his wealth investing in mining and oil. Bell earned a degree in commerce from Montreal's McGill University during the Great Depression while working for his father at the Calgary Albertan newspaper during his summers. After graduating in 1932, Bell moved to British Columbia where he unsuccessfully attempted to prospect for gold in the Kootenays for a time and played two seasons of senior hockey with the Kimberley Dynamiters. He met and married his first wife, Suzanne Staples, during this time and in 1935 returned to Calgary. He returned to the Albertan, earning $35 per week as the classified advertising manager. Bell inherited the paper upon his father's death in 1936, however the Albertan was under the control of the Royal Bank