Earl Holding Dies: Utah Billionaire And Ski Resort Owner Passes Away At 86

Earl Holding has died. The Utah-born billionaire, the owner of Sinclair Oil and two high-class ski resorts, was 86 years old.

Holding passed away Friday in Salt Lake City due to complications caused by a 2002 stroke. Clint Ensign, senior vice president of the Sinclair Companies, confirmed Holding’s death Sunday, noting that the oil man had presided over his various businesses until around 2011.

“He was a lion of a man,” Ensign told The Associated Press. “He was the All-American success story, someone who came from humble beginnings and through hard work and good management created some wonderful businesses. He truly was one of the great entrepreneurs of the West.”

Those humble beginnings began in 1926, when Robert Earl Holding was born to two apartment caretakers. His parents lost everything in the 1929 stock market crash, and a young Earl was working full time before he reached high school; he would only ever attend high school half-time.

Holding’s business flair first became apparent in 1952 when he became manager of the struggling “Little America” truck stop and hotel near Green River, Wyoming. Holding didn’t only revive the flagging fortunes of the business, but also opened other Little Americas in Wyoming, Arizona, and Salt Lake City.

Yet Earl Holding will be best remembered for his success in the oil industry. After acquiring a Mobil refinery in Wyoming in 1968, he bought out Sinclair Oil in 1976. The company, based in Holding’s native Salt Lake City, now has 2,700 independently-owned stations in 22 states in the West and Midwest. There are also two major Sinclair Oil refineries in Wyoming.

Holding later bought up the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho and Snowbasin Resort in Utah, not to mention colossal ranches in Wyoming and Montana. According to Business Insider, the entrepreneur owned 400,000 acres in 2010, a total that made him the 19th greatest land holder in the US.

“I think his timing (for acquisitions) was very good,” Ensign said. “He saw value when others didn’t. He had wonderful vision … and a very hands-on management style.”

At the time of his death, Forbes reports Earl Holding had an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion, making him the 423rd wealthiest person in the world.

Holding is survived by Carol, his wife of 64 years, and his three children.