Arthur L. Irving, one of Canada’s wealthiest persons and the son of Canadian entrepreneur K.C. Irving, died at the age of 93 after a lifetime devoted expanding the oil company his father built.
Irving Oil announced his death in a statement, saying he died on Monday flanked by his wife, Sandra, and daughter, Sarah.
According to Forbes Magazine, Arthur Irving is one of the ten richest Canadians in 2023. At the time of his death, he was believed to have a net worth of US$6.4 billion, which included Canada’s largest refinery in New Brunswick, as well as Ireland’s Whitegate plant.
Irving was born in 1930 and attended Acadia University in Nova Scotia before leaving to work for Irving Oil in 1951, alongside his father and two brothers.
“I had the choice between going to Acadia or learning about business from the best teacher available anywhere — my father,” he told author Donald Savoie in his 2020 book about Irving Oil. “I went with the best teacher.”
He became the company’s president in 1972 and died as chairman emeritus.
His death occurs as the company’s Saint John refinery undergoes a “strategic review” to decide its future, as climate change prompts a shift away from fossil fuels in some countries.
While Irving’s biographers credit him for expanding the company, he also had a tough domestic life, including a painful divorce with his first wife in 1980 and, more recently, alienation from his eldest son.
In his book “Irving vs. Irving,” published in 2014, journalist Jacques Poitras described a moving scene from August 2013, when Irving stood at a Saint John news conference announcing that his company was officially launching a bid — which ultimately failed — to build a pipeline to transport crude oil from Alberta to the family’s refinery.
Poitras said that Kenneth, “his son and heir,” was noticeably absent after leaving the company in 2010 due to a disagreement. “Arthur, in his nineties, was surrounded by admirers yet remained alone. Poitras writes, “His refinery was in the background, but his family was torn asunder.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, Arthur Irving’s commercial life and interests were inextricably linked to his two brothers, J.K. and Jack, who assumed primary responsibility for various aspects of their father’s corporate empire. The trucking corporations used the Irvings’ refined gasoline, the forestry and shipping industries employed the Irvings’ construction divisions, and a chain of newspapers bought newsprint from a nearby mill.
In late 2009, the three Irving brothers divided their corporate holdings, with Arthur taking over the energy sector.
In its statement, the business characterized Irving as “a steadfast champion of Atlantic Canada and its people” who is one-of-a-kind.
“In this immense loss, we know there will never be another like him,” it continued.