Kenneth Colin Irving (1899-1992) was an industrialist who built a cluster of interrelated regional businesses into a massive empire that straddled virtually every aspect of his native New Brunswick's economy. He became the "Paul Bunyan of New Brunswick," purportedly one of the wealthiest men in the world by the late 1980s.

Kenneth Colin Irving was born into a fourth-generation Canadian family of Scottish descent on March 14, 1899, at Bouctouche, New Brunswick. While never especially religious in later life, young Irving was clearly stamped by his father James' ardent Presbyterianism, with its emphasis on frugality and hard work. The family capitalized on the strength of the 19th-century maritime economy, sawing timber at their sawmill and purveying dry goods at their local store. Ken displayed an early appetite for work--threshing grain and performing odd jobs--but little enthusiasm for study. After two lackluster years at a university in Nova Scotia, young Irving's...