Don Wallace, president of Sorenson Real Estate, places the current market value of Sorenson's property at $400 million. Those holdings include residential subdivisions, industrial parks, office space and retail centers. His White Sage Ranch, south of Fillmore, encompasses more than 400,000 acres of leased property for a cattle business.

Sorenson Real Estate owns Rosecrest, a 2,200-acre mixed-use development in Herriman and Bluffdale. Approximately 700 homes already occupy the site, with 5,000 homes planned. In Wasatch and Summit counties, Sorenson controls nearly 10,000 acres. Some 2,000 housing units have been approved for a development called Jordanelle Ridge, expected to begin construction in early 2004.

"He's really been good about projecting the path of progress," Wallace said. "In a lot of instances people probably think he has been too early, but in most cases he has been right on the money. He's picked it up at the right time at the right price. And ultimately development came to that area."

Becoming a billionaire

Sorenson's real estate holdings made him rich, but he broke into the ranks of billionaires with his sale of Sorenson Research to Abbott Laboratories.

Sorenson launched his research company in 1962 in the back room of LeVoy's, a lingerie company he also started.

When Sorenson was not preoccupied with the day-to-day details of manufacturing modest nightgowns and slips, his time centered on medical innovations, his true passion.

Within four years, Sorenson Research was sending products to market. By 1972, the company spun out on its own, offering about 500 individual products and employing 1,700 people.

Yet the fast growth posed a serious problem. The company was undercapitalized. And First Security Bank, which had loaned $21 million to Sorenson Research, was worried about a default.

Because the company had reached its loan limit, the bank pressured Sorenson to sell it or make an initial public offering of stock.

Sorenson was set against a stock offering, so he decided to sell.

In exchange for roughly $100 million in Abbott Laboratories stock, Sorenson Research became Abbott Critical Care Systems.

"As I remember that was about 32 or 33 times earnings," said Gary L. Crocker, the lead negotiator in selling the company and currently chairman of Salt Lake-based ARUP Laboratories Inc. "At that time, I was also amazed that anyone would go that high because it just assumes that growth is going to continue for a long time."

Since the deal closed in 1980, Abbott stock has made a two-for-one split five times. Sorenson is reluctant to talk about his Abbott shares or their worth, but he does refer to his Abbott stock as "the bank."