"He taught all of his children the value of work and, I think, good virtues," James Lee Sorenson said. "Dad was always one to be immersed in his work, but his family was very important to him."

Sorenson's wife, Beverley, agrees. She said the couple took their eight children on vacations to California by station wagon every summer and attended the New York World's Fair in 1965.

Still, she hinted she would like to see her husband cut back on a work week that often spills over into the weekend.

"He never stops," she said.

But Sorenson said work is what keeps him young. "Every day's a vacation for me."

Too much money

Columnist Jack Anderson suggests that Sorenson is like many other wealthy folks.

"He does not like to be asked for money," he said. "He never expressed this to me, but I sensed that he has the attitude of most wealthy people; that is, as soon as you get to know them you ask for money. They feel that is all you were interested in, you weren't interested in a relationship other than a financial one."

When Anderson was visiting Sorenson in 1999, he thought Sorenson might be interested in some of the same causes Anderson was furthering at USU.

"So I mentioned it to him, and boy, he turned cold on that at once," Anderson said. "He didn't say anything, but he was not interested in it."

Soon thereafter Sorenson had a change of heart, offering on another occasion to match dollar-for-dollar any money Anderson could raise.

Anderson came up with $500,000.

"I mentioned the figure to him, and he pulled out a checkbook and said to his secretary, 'Take this out of such and such account.'"

Richard West, executive director of USU's Center for the School of the Future, the organization that received Sorenson's matching $500,000 gift, said he once viewed the billionaire as self-absorbed. But his views have changed.

"I don't think the citizens know nor appreciate what Jim Sorenson has done," West said. "I don't think Jim is the flashy philanthropist some others are. He has supported a lot of causes. I think he does have some real compassion for people who are down and out."

As Sorenson examines his own life, his thoughts drift from the materialistic to the spiritual. It is the spiritual dimension of life, he will tell you, that is the most important.

"Things don't make you happy. I've learned that over and over again," Sorenson said. "People come to me four and five times a day with great causes that require money. And that's great, but money is not what I'm about. I'm about trying to help people."

His latest mission, which he describes as the "big one," involves building a monumental DNA database, allowing people to trace their ancestry.