13 Facts About Isadore Sharp

Isadore Sharp is founder and chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Isadore Sharp's father, Max, a devout Torah scholar, was a Polish Jew who emigrated from Poland to Palestine in 1920, and finally to Toronto five years later.

Isadore Sharp worked as a plasterer until his family began to grow with the arrival of Issy and three daughters.

Isadore Sharp excelled in sports during his high school years.

Isadore Sharp founded the Four Seasons Hotel in 1960 and opened the first hotel on Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto in 1961.

Isadore Sharp would remain chairman and chief executive of the company.

Isadore Sharp would be able to realize proceeds from a 1989 incentive plan that would pay him $288 million; the company's headquarters would remain in Toronto.

Isadore Sharp helped start and is the director of the Terry Fox Run.

Isadore Sharp first met Terry Fox when the latter arrived in Montreal in June 1980 during his trek across the country to raise money for cancer research.

Isadore Sharp invited Fox to rest in one of the city's Four Seasons hotels for a week before resuming his run, helped pay for his cancer treatment, and later pledged to contribute to research funds on his behalf.

Isadore Sharp married his high school sweetheart, Rosalie Wise who was of Jewish descent.

In 2009, Isadore Sharp summarized his experience and business philosophy in a book Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy, published by Viking Canada.

In 2011, a documentary about Sharp's life and achievements, The Four Seasons of Isadore Sharp, aired on City TV.