Lee Byung Chull, 77, Industrialist of Korea – The New York Times

Lee Byung Chull, chairman and founder of the Samsung Group and one of the fathers of modern industrial South Korea, died of lung cancer today. He was 77 years old. Mr. Lee started his business in 1938 and rebuilt it after the Korean War into a high-technology manufacturer and South Korea’s first major trading company.

Often called ”the richest man in Korea,” he built Samsung from a small import-export operation into one of the world’s 50 largest corporations.

He expanded from sugar refinery and textiles into electronics, aircraft, semiconductors, shipbuilding, machinery and food processing. The group now has 26 subsidiaries and about 75,000 employees.