The couple behind the $5-million tsunami donation

The Globe and Mail: The couple behind the $5-million tsunami donation

Large as it is, it comes less than a year after the couple pledged $20-million, spread over 10 years, to War Child Canada, which helps children living in battle zones. In 1998, the Pindoffs gave $5-million to the Red Cross to help people injured by land mines. A few years earlier, they paid to build orphanages and seniors homes in the former Yugoslavia, and to feed 20,000 Bulgarians after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Clearly, the Pindoffs have come to know wealth in the 35 years since they founded the Music World record-store chain.

Before that, they knew only hard work and doing without, and if there were sleepless nights, the causes were closer to home.

Born in Macedonia in 1915, Mr. Pindoff grew up in Bulgaria, the eldest of four siblings. When he was 15, his father, a builder, died in a fall, so he had to quit school and work to support the family.