Irish-born businessman Hugh Green has died at his New Zealand home, aged 80.
Mr Green amassed a fortune from humble beginnings in New Zealand and gave money to many causes, while maintaining strong links with Ireland.
He had a relatively low public profile because Hugh Green Group was privately owned but he was enormously respected. The National Business Review rich list estimates his wealth at $350 million.
Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae presented Mr Green with the Queen's Service Medal for services to philanthropy in his modest Mt Albert living room in April because Mr Green was too ill with cancer to attend a public ceremony.
"I made a lot of money and I can't spend it. So I decided to give it away and do something for somebody else," Mr Green said at the time.
Mr Green established the Hugh Green Foundation in 1998, which replaced a charitable trust he had operated since 1968.
He was the fifth of eight children born in County Donegal, according to the foundation's website. He left school at 12 because of hard times and spent two years cutting sugarcane in Queensland before deciding to return to his homeland via New Zealand and Canada.
He only got as far as Wellington.
In 1951 he and friend Barney McCahill tendered for contracts digging trenches and laying cable for the Post and Telegraph Department.
From an Auckland base, Green & McCahill secured civil engineering contracts in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji.
The firm got involved with property development during the 1980s and turned to investment in 1992.
Mr Green and Mr McCahill divided the company in 2003 and the resulting Hugh Green Group continued as an engineering construction and investment company.
His death was reported in the Irish Times and by New Zealand media.
Mr Green was married to Moria, his wife of 56 years and had five adult children, as well as many grandchildren.
NZN