SAINT JOHN, N.B. — Arthur L. Irving, the second-born son of New Brunswick industrialist K.C. Irving, has died at the age of 93 after a life spent growing the oil business his father founded.
Irving Oil announced his death in a statement, saying he died Monday surrounded by his wife, Sandra, and daughter, Sarah.
"I had the choice to go on at Acadia or learn about business from the best teacher available anywhere — my father," he told author Donald Savoie in his 2020 book about Irving Oil.Savoie wrote that Irving's first day on the job was a happy one:"He got a Ford, quickly slapped the Irving diamond on the door, and off he went. He was out to hustle business, meet existing customers, seek new ones, and beat the competition.
In his book,"Irving vs. Irving," published in 2014, journalist Jacques Poitras described a poignant scene from August 2013, when Irving stood at a Saint John news conference announcing that his company was officially launching a bid — which ultimately didn't succeed — to build a pipeline to carry crude oil from Alberta to the family's refinery.
Of the three brothers, Arthur was described by his father's biographers Douglas How and Ralph Costello as"thin and mercurial, the most abrasive against government and the most talkative." However, the biographers also noted his ability to turn on the charm and his capacity to act as the family's"super salesman," chasing down customers for the supertankers that docked at the company's Canaport terminal outside Saint John.
For the author Savoie, a public administration professor at Université de Moncton, Arthur Irving's single-mindedness was key to the survival of the company over the past five decades. Atlantic Canadians and New Englanders experienced this style at the Big Stop gas stations and stores, which Savoie described as"customer-centric." The author also said he believed that while the businesses in the Irving empire went in different directions, Arthur remained close with J.K. and with his younger brother, Jack — who died in 2010.
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