Stephen Jarislowsky

Stephen Arnold Jarislowsky was born on September 9, 1925, in Berlin, Germany, to a Jewish family of industrialists and merchants. When he was four, his father Alfred died from scarlet fever, and young Stephen was sent with his siblings to live with relatives in Amsterdam, then Paris. As fascism tightened its grip on Europe, the family fled Nazi-occupied France in 1941 after his stepfather's work helping refugees escape was discovered by the Gestapo. They arrived in New York that year, and Stephen — already fluent in German and French — began building the extraordinary life ahead of him. After preparatory school in Asheville, North Carolina, he studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University. In 1944, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and deployed as a counterintelligence officer in occupied Tokyo, where he investigated black-market activity and taught himself Japanese. That experience, combined with a master's degree in Far Eastern studies from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1949, gave him an intellectual breadth that would define everything he touched. He moved to Montreal to join Alcan Aluminum, rising to assistant director of finance before striking out on his own. In 1955, with partner Scott Fraser and roughly $150 in capital, he founded Jarislowsky, Fraser & Company Ltd. Over six decades, he grew it into one of Canada's largest independent investment management firms, overseeing approximately $40 billion in assets before its 2018 sale to Scotiabank for $950 million. Known affectionately as "Canada's Warren Buffett," he was also known for his modesty — no private plane, no yacht, no chauffeur. He drove his own car and washed the dishes every evening himself. Jarislowsky became one of Canada's most outspoken champions of corporate governance and shareholder rights, co-founding the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance in 2002. His Jarislowsky Foundation, established in 1991, endowed more than 50 research chairs at Canadian universities in fields spanning democracy, governance, health, and the arts. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2008, its highest civilian honour, and received honorary degrees from 20 Canadian universities. A passionate art collector, he assembled one of Canada's finest private collections of Canadian art, Chinese jade, and French Impressionist paintings. He died in Montreal on October 8, 2026, at the age of 101, having witnessed fascism rise and fall, markets boom and crash, and Canada grow into a nation worthy of his deepest admiration. He is survived by his wife Gail and their three children, Michael, Alexandra, and Marika. His was a life shaped by loss and displacement, but defined by integrity, generosity, and an indomitable will to build something lasting.