Irwin Jacobs, The Eternal Opportunist Slideshow

• 1941: Irwin Jacobs born in Minneapolis.
• 1953: At 12, Jacobs begins calling on his father's Northwestern bag accounts.
• 1961: Marries Alexandra Light.
• 1963: Mark, the first of the Jacobs' five children, is born.

Photo courtesy of Irwin Jacobs

• 1965: Supplies millions of gunny sacks for sandbags to flood-stricken Midwest communities.
• 1975: With a $4.5 million loan from banker Carl Pohlad, purchases historic Grain Belt Brewery.

Photo courtesy of Irwin Jacobs

• 1976: Buys receivables of bankrupt retailer W.T. Grand. Dubbed "Irv the Liquidator" by The Wall Street Journal. Begins runs as "corporate raider," buying major interests in Disney, ITT, and other underperforming public companies.
• 1978: Buys bankrupt Watkins Inc. of Winona, legendary purveyor of household and personal care products.

Photo courtesy of Irwin Jacobs

• 1989: Sells Grain Belt Brewery.
• 1995: Buys what is now called FLW Outdoors, which organizes televised fishing tournaments.
• 2000: Acquires VEC Technology, a computer-driven system for making boat hulls and other products.
• 2008: Brother Sheldon dies.
• 2008: With T. Boone Pickens, announces plan to use VEC Technology in a wind power venture.

Photo by Travis Anderson

• 2009: Jacobs' liquidation business booms.
• 2009: Genmar lays off nearly half of its workforce due to recession.
• 2009: Carl Pohlad dies.
• 2009: Jacobs supplies millions of sandbags to fight record floods along the Red River.