Vincent Ferguson:The businessman and art collector Vincent Ferguson died suddenly in his home in Rosses Point, Sligo, on Tuesday. He was 75 years old.
Mr Ferguson's funeral in Sligo yesterday was attended by leading figures from the worlds of Irish business and culture, reflecting two of his principal interests in life.
At a removal service on Thursday, the chief executive of Independent News & Media, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, recalled how he had met Ferguson 41 years earlier when Sir Anthony was about to take on the position of chief executive of the Irish Sugar Company/ Erin Foods.
He said the two men's discussions about the then critical situation with Erin Foods led in time to the forging of a relationship between that company and the Heinz group, and the establishment of Heinz Erin. This relationship too, in time, led to Sir Anthony joining the Heinz group, where he eventually became chairman and chief executive.
Sir Anthony said there were few moments in his life when faced with various choices that he had not sought Ferguson's advice.
In the late 1960s, when Ferguson and the journalist-turned-businessman Nicholas Leonard were working with Allied Irish Investment Bank, they and Sir Anthony came together to establish an industrial holding company, Fitzwilton Securities, which later became Fitzwilton plc.
Ferguson worked in both financial and managerial roles in the course of a business career that saw him serve on the boards of a range of Irish companies as well as on the board of the Central Bank. He was a director of Independent News & Media at the time of his death.
Speaking of Ferguson's business talents yesterday, Leonard said his friend and associate had "tremendous insight and foresight, was very good at reading people and situations, and had an even, sensible approach to business". He said Ferguson had a "great gift for friendship and love".
In 2002 in their report on the Ansbacher controversy, the inspectors who investigated Ansbacher Cayman disclosed how Ferguson and another director of Atlantic Resources plc, Jim McCarthy, secretly bought shares in the company in the 1980s using Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust, as Ansbacher Cayman was then know. The two lost heavily on the shares and Ferguson's and McCarthy's debts to the bank were eventually cleared by Sir Anthony, who had been chairman of Atlantic.
As well as business, Ferguson also had a passion for literature, music and, most famously, painting. He was the owner of the Hendriks Gallery in Dublin. Last year The Irish Timesart critic, Aidan Dunne, said Ferguson and his wife Noeleen, owned one of the foremost privately owned Irish art collections in the State.
His daughter Ciara said the family home was full of books and paintings, and this was a reflection of her father's interest in and passion for life generally. Her father never bought paintings as an investment, and "didn't differentiate between his passion for the arts and his passion for business. It was all his life".
In 1997 he and his wife donated an important collection of 35 paintings to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. His interest in painting extended to the painters who made them, many of whom he knew and was friendly with.
He also loved music, especially jazz, and had just returned from a jazz festival in Aix-en-Provence, France, when he died suddenly in his home in Ballywheelin, Rosses Point.
He is survived by his wife, Noeleen, daughters Ciara, Judy and Emma, and sons John, Conor and Paul.