Big Nickel creator Ted Szilva has passed away

The man who's vision birthed Greater Sudbury's most iconic symbol, the Big Nickel, has passed away.

Ted Szilva was in his 82nd year.

A larger-than-life personality, Szilva had to fight to make his vision of creating a tourist attraction that honoured Sudbury's mining industry, he told Northern Life in 2014 on the advent of publishing a book, The Big Nickel: The Untold Story,  chronicling the story of the monument's creation.

Fifty years ago, Szilva entered a contest to create a symbol to commemorate Canada's centennial. He came up with the idea to create a giant nickel monument.

He didn't win the contest, but inspired by his idea, Szilva decided to create the monument anyway. And come hell or high water, that's what he did.

He bought a piece of land in the city's west end for $1,000 to put his monument. When he went to put in a road to connect the site to Lorne Street, city officials balked, accusing him of building a road without a permit.

Szilva, in his characeteristic fashion, reminded them that the land he was on was leased from Inco in Copper Cliff, and therefore outside the Sudbury city limits (the communities being separate municipalities at the time).

“I said 'I'm building four feet outside the city limit, so why are you harassing me?'” he said.

Eventually, then-Mayor Joe Fabbro stepped in and ordered officials to "leave him alone," Szilva told Northern Life.

This wasn't the last bureaucratic red tape Szilva had to deal with to get the Big Nickel site going. When the Big Nickel first opened, he had outhouses set up because he wasn't connected to the municipal water system yet, something he said he also had to wrestle permission for from city officials.

The monument itself is based on the 1951 nickel, as that year was the 200th anniversary of the isolation of nickel as a mineral.

“I thought it was a fitting piece to portray the wealth of Sudbury,” Szilva said.

He raised the $35,000 it cost to build the structure by selling miniature medallion versions of the monument. Today it would cost more than $250,000 to build the structure, he told Northern Life in 2014.

Even 50 years later, Szilva said he's “elated” his creation is still a must-see for visitors to Sudbury.

“I'm very much happy it's still here,” he said.

Funeral information for Szilva has not yet been released.