James Kenneth Irving, who was the last living son of New Brunswick industrialist K.C. Irving, has died at 96.
Mr. Irving was the eldest son of industrialist K.C. Irving, whose Bouctouche, N.B., sawmill grew into an international conglomerate that today employs more than 17,000 people. His brother Arthur Irving, who was responsible for Irving Oil, died earlier this year. His younger brother Jack Irving, who oversaw construction, engineering, and steel fabrication companies as well as commercial properties and broadcasting, died in 2010.
His first business was selling eggs as a young boy with his brothers around Bouctouche. He told people how his father came home late one night and found two cartons on the counter – and woke J.K. up to deliver them immediately. The lesson: Work came first, no matter what. Mr. Irving also understood how power worked. He often hosted influential American and Canadian politicians at his family’s lodges in New Brunswick, taking them salmon fishing on the Miramichi River or cooking lobster dinners in Bouctouche – driving to the wharf himself to negotiate a good price with the fishermen.
Mr. McKenna said when he needed to put 5,000 people to work as part of an initiative to get people off social assistance, he simply had to call Mr. Irving, who would find a way to arrange it.