Cano Ozgener, Nashville businessman and arts visionary, dies at 81

Jason Gonzales | The Tennessean

CAO Cigars founder Cano Ozgener, whose creative vision helped establish Oz Arts Nashville, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer, according to his family.

He was 81.

The prominent Nashville businessman, philanthropist and artist whose immigrant roots guided his desire to give back to the community was remembered for his passion and drive by friends and family.

Ozgener's diminutive stature was overshadowed by his ambition to better the world around him, especially Nashville, said his son Murat "Tim" Ozgener.

"The fact that he was short, people would almost by osmosis underestimate him," Tim Ozgener said. "He always loved to prove them wrong."

Cano Ozgener was a Turkish Armenian born in Istanbul. He immigrated to the United States in 1962 to pursue a master's in electrical engineering at Columbia University.

He later founded Nashville's CAO Cigars in 1994 after a successful career with DuPont's research and development department.

Tim Ozgener said his father started the business after a man asked him for an order of custom meerschaum pipes that he had created.

"The stem used to shove in and pull. If you pull it out, you can damage the meerschaum," Tim Ozgener said. "Being an engineer, he came up with thread that can twist in and twist out."

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Tim Ozgener said his dad decided to pursue the request because "Armenians should never refuse an order."

The cigar company grew to international prominence, with its distribution stretching to over 100 counties before its sale in 2007 to ST Group.

In 2012, Cano Ozgener and his son converted the building into Oz Arts Nashville, a nonprofit contemporary performing arts center.

Janet Miller, Colliers International CEO, said the nonprofit was created to better the city through a new avenue for modern art.

"It is a gift to the city unlike anything Nashville has ever seen," said Miller, who serves on the nonprofit's board.

Cano Ozgener was also an artist who took up painting at the age of 70. He produced over 500 paintings and dozens of sculptures before his death.

Miller said Cano Ozgener never wavered in his generosity.

"I told Cano that I'd like to buy (a piece of art), and 16 hours later it showed up at my office with a note that said, 'Art finds its way to its rightful owner,' " she said.

► The artwork of Cano Ozgener

Cano Ozgener also served on numerous community boards, including those for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center and Watkins College of Art.

And he was a beacon in the U.S. Turkish community, said Alp Ikizler, a nephrologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a close friend. Cano Ozgener was recognized in 2014 as one of the "Top 50 Most Influential Turkish Americans" in the U.S. by Turk of America magazine.

"He considered Nashville as his place," Ikizler said. "It didn't matter where he was coming from. He really immersed himself into the Nashville community.

"He was here to make it better. He loved his country, his origins and his religion, but he considered himself an individual that belonged to Nashville.

"Nashville was his priority."

Tim Ozgener asked that instead of flowers, donations can be made to Oz Arts Nashville, http://www.ozartsnashville.org/.

Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.