Kenneth Thomson; Canada's Richest Man

Kenneth Thomson, 82, the former chairman of Thomson Corp. who became Canada's richest man by turning a chain of newspapers into one of the world's biggest distributors of financial data, died June 12 at his office in Toronto after an apparent heart attack.

Mr. Thomson was chairman of Thomson Corp., the owner of Westlaw legal research and First Call financial data, from 1978 until his retirement in 2002, when his eldest son, David, succeeded him. He remained on the company's board and was chairman of Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the family holding company.

Mr. Thomson, who succeeded his father as Lord Thomson of Fleet, was ranked by Forbes magazine this year as the world's ninth-richest man. His fortune was estimated at $19.6 billion, trailing Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.

Kenneth Roy Thomson was born in 1923 in Toronto, the third child and only son of Roy Thomson -- a hard-driving creator of a business empire that began with a tiny radio station in northern Ontario and grew to embrace Canada's dominant newspaper group and other interests.

Mr. Thomson served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, got an economics and law degree from Cambridge University and joined his father's newspaper business. He started in 1947 as a reporter at his father's first newspaper, the Daily Press in the northern Ontario mining town of Timmins.

He assumed control of the Thomson family business in 1976 when his father died, leaving "Young Ken," as he was known, with newspapers that included London's Sunday Times and The Times.

His first decision was to sell the two British newspapers, which were beset with union problems, to Rupert Murdoch and retreat to Canada, author Peter C. Newman said in a 1991 profile.

Mr. Thomson turned to electronic publishing in the 1990s and began selling his holdings in almost 150 Canadian newspapers, which included the Winnipeg Free Press in Manitoba and the Victoria Times-Colonist in British Columbia.

He also sold the family's nonmedia holdings, which included control of department-store chain Hudson's Bay Co., Canada's oldest company, as well as interests in North Sea oil production and a travel business.

Mr. Thomson retained his links to newspapers through Woodbridge's holding in Bell Globemedia, which owns the Globe and Mail and CTV network. Woodbridge agreed in December to increase its stake in Bell Globemedia to 40 percent, becoming the largest shareholder.

He was also chairman of the Globe, Canada's second-biggest paper by circulation.

Mr. Thomson was known for his love of art and was a collector of works by Cornelius Krieghoff, who painted scenes of Canadian rural life in the 19th century. He also collected landscapes of the "Group of Seven" Canadian painters.

Mr. Thomson agreed to donate most of his collection of more than 2,000 pieces of Canadian and European art to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, including Peter Paul Rubens's masterpiece "The Massacre of the Innocents."

Mr. Thomson also was known as an intensely shy man. "I'd be happy to go unnoticed," he told author Newman. "I've tried to be a good, sound businessman in my quiet way, but I can't say I've been a slave to business."

Though Mr. Thomson amassed a personal fortune, he never wasted his money, said Jim Pattison, 77, chief executive of Jim Pattison Group in Vancouver, who was a Toronto-Dominion Bank director with Mr. Thomson.

Pattison, himself a billionaire, recalls seeing Mr. Thomson trudging through the snow across a parking lot on his way to a dinner in Toronto. Mr. Thomson had parked his car a few blocks away from the event to avoid paying for valet service.

Mr. Thomson wore inexpensive suits, and his shoes were occasionally seen to be worn at the heels. He inherited the title Lord Thomson of Fleet from his father but did not use the title in Canada and never took his seat in the British House of Lords. He rarely entertained at his Toronto mansion.

Survivors include his wife, Marilyn, and three children.