Obituary: Leonardo Del Vecchio 1935-2022

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Nick Kostov, Italian Entrepreneur Built Eyeglass Empire. Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2022, at page A11.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bil ... s-at-87-11656327226

Mote:
(a) Leonardo Del Vecchio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Del_Vecchio
("At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated at US$24.1 billion, the second richest person in Italy [Ferrero family is the richest, making chocolates], and 54th in the world. * * * His father was a street vendor of vegetables" or produce)
(b) Luxottica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica
(1961; based in Milan; in "2017, Luxottica announced a merger with Essilor. * * * Leonardo Del Vecchio started the company in 1961, in Agordo[, a town] north of Belluno, Veneto; today the company is headquartered in Milan")
(i) Belluno
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belluno
("Located about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region")
(ii) Veneto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veneto
("is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona")
(iii) Our History. Luxottica, undated
https://www.luxottica.com/en/about-us/our-history
('INTERESTING FACTS: "THE NAME OF THE COMPANY IS DERIVED FROM THE COMBINATION OF TWO ITALIAN WORDS: [noun feminine] 'LUCE' (LIGHT) AND [noun feminine] 'OTTICA' (OPTICS). A PERFECT MARRIAGE")

(c) Dolomites
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Dolomites
(English pronunciation, which is different from Italian pronunciation (shown in en.wikipedia.org, which also displays a map)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites
is a mountain range, not a "region."

---------------------------text (starting from paragraph 3; wsj.com supplies the first two paragraphs)
Mr Del Vecchio was born on May 22, 1935, in Milan, five months after his father died of pneumonia. His parents had run a fruit-and-vegetable store. When he was 7 years old, his mother decided that sending him to an orphanage would improve his chances of surviving World War II.

In 1961, he moved his Luxottica eyewear business to the Dolomites, a region in the northeastern Italy where the government offered free land and low taxes to entrepreneurs. He thrived partly because he recognized early on that frames are a fashion accessory.

In the early days, the future billionaire's standard lunch was some variant of boiled cabbage. "Work always came before everything," he told Forbes in a 2002 interview, "If I'd [I had] started selling fruit, I'd be [this is subjunctive mood; 'I would' rather than 'I would have been' signals he was talking about the present, which in this case is 2002] passionate about fruit."