At 82, Kenneth Colin Irving says "it doesn't take as much to keep me busy as it did at one time." And he has been busy. Starting with one truck in 1924, the Buctouche, N.B., native went on to build an industrial empire- trucking fleets, shipyards, gas stations, oil refineries and newspapers- worth an estimated $7 billion, making him, says narrator Earl Pennington, "probably the richest man in Canada." Here, the reclusive Irving talks about some of the influences that shaped him, including his canny Scottish Presbyterian father, from whom he learned the value of hard work. That lesson certainly sank in: Irving has retired from the front line of his business interests only in the last 10 years. And in leaving the operation of the family business to his three sons, he passed on some pretty good business advice of his own: Get rid of the fat, don't waste time, and don't waste money.

Aired on Oct 4, 1981