Mr Richard "Dick" Pratt

RICHARD Pratt has led life in the thick of the action.

The business mogul and poor Polish migrant made good, was also a one-time boxer, would-be Hollywood actor, accomplished footballer and Carlton president, arts administrator, university director and philanthropist.

Dick Pratt’s personal fortune nudges $5.5 billion and his corporate empire spans the globe, employing more than 9000 people.

He was recently named Australia's fourth-richest man and one of the nation’s greatest philanthropists and arts patrons, donating $10 million a year to causes.

Married to arts dynamo Jeanne Pratt, who also has a lengthy resume involving arts and charity works, Mr Pratt was made a Companion (AC) of the Order of Australia for his contributions to industry, sport and the arts.

But he handed it back in February last year back after admitting price fixing with rival Amcor which led to a $36 million fine.

It was not the first time the high-profile businessman’s activities attracted both adulation and trouble as he made major plays in the corporate and sporting world.

In the '90s, Mr Pratt was pursued by the NCA – which raided his offices in 1993 over business dealings with John Elliott in the ‘80s, which also examined the aborted takeover of BHP.

And in 1990, in the middle of the last recession, Pratt almost lost everything amid the failed sale of the Occidental and Regal insurance businesses by Pratt’s Battery Group.

His communty standing also took a beating in 2000, amid revelations that Mr Pratt kept Shari-Lea Hitchcock as a long-term mistress in Sydney, with their union producing a daughter, Paula, in 1997.

Mr Pratt said the headlines had been painful, particularly for his young daughter.

"I thought it (the media coverage) was very unfair because I didn't think it was anyone's business except for my family, the young girl and her mother," Mr Pratt said in 2007.

But despite the troubles, Mr Pratt told the Herald Sun in 2004 that he always started the day on a positive note.

“Every morning I wake up optimistic. I may go to bed feeling pessimistic, but I wake up optimistic.''

In Melbourne, he is well known as the former president of the Carlton Football Club, a post he held in 2007-2008, before standing down amid charges he misled the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

He was born Ryszard Przecicki in Gdansk, Poland on December 10, 1934, to parents Leon and Paula.

His grandfather was a schoolteacher, and his father was a retailer selling bicycles, white goods and record players.

As World War II raged around them, the Jewish family sought refuge in Australia in 1938 from the Nazi threat, an experience that has seen Mr Pratt become a stout defender of the Australian ethos.

The family first settled in Shepparton where Pratt senior bought an orchard, and Richard went to Grahamvale State School and Shepparton High.

In 1945, Richard’s parents began what was to become the Visy empire with a 1000 pound investment from Ida Visboard.

The Visy Board’s first cardboard box machine made 5000 boxes a day. Richard joined in 1952, working in sales and marketing.

By the time Richard Pratt took over the business in 1969 at the death of his father, the company had a $5 million a year turnover.

Under his stewardship, the company expanded from a single factory to plants across the country, New Zealand, Thailand and the US.

Along the way he became known as the “cardboard king”, dominating Australia’s recycled cardboard packaging industry for decades.

Pratt’s involvement with arguably Australia’s biggest crisis – the lack of water – has also been instrumental in seeking solutions to the big dry.

He has argued many times in recent years that water is Australia's key commodity for the future, and should be more expensive.

In 1994 he was also recognised for his “magnificent contribution to recycling” by the Banksia Environmental Foundation, and was named Environmental Visionary of the Year in 1998 by the Keep Australia Beautiful Campaign.

But Mr Pratt’s interests have not been confined to business.

Pratt public service has ranged from being the foundation chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology, the president of the Victorian Arts Centre Trust and Chairman of the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria.

The Pratt Foundation also donates an estimated $10 million-a-year to charitable activties.

At Melbourne University, Mr Pratt acted, and in 1956 left his studies to perform Johnnie Dowd in Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in its London and New York seasoins.

Pratt was invited by Burt Lancaster to screen-test for the Hollywood film but declined, opting to return home to the family business.

He was also a useful performer on the field, playing Aussie Rules with Carlton’s seconds – including winning the Morrish medal for best and fairest in 1953.

As an amateur boxer he was less well known, except for an infamous stoush when he broke the nose of ex-Carlton coach and champ Percy Jones.

His boxing interest saw him bring champion Muhammad Ali to Australia in 2000.

He also made a failed bid in 1983 to snatch yachting glory and the America’s Cup, largely financing the Challenge 12 syndicate, which played a crucial role in the success of Alan Bond’s Australia II.

Mr Pratt also stood ready in 1985 to take over the Sydney Swans.

Cramming much into his life, Mr Pratt’s capacity for work has been the stuff of legend, with the mogul starting work by 5.30am every day.

His schedule has often consisted of working 16-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, snatching 20-minute naps along the way.

What pushed him so hard to achieve was not clear, although he never lost the hardworking country ethos he picked up around Shepparton.

“It’s certainly not the necessities of life. But there is some force which pushes me along.”

In an interview four years ago, he told the Herald Sun, he had not missed a day at work “for a very long time”.

“But then, I don't go to work to earn a living. I go because it is exciting and fun, and it satisfies my yearning to be busy all the time.''

At the time, Mr Pratt said he would never retire.

His boundless energy has also seen the Pratt throw spectacular parties, with hundreds coming to his 60th birthday, opera events and the weddings for his children at the family mansion Raheen.

At some of the grand parties, Dick Pratt was known to sing and dance. His favourite song? If I Were a Rich Man.

All the while, Mr Pratt has never lost confidence in his abilities, saying if he had started from scratch he would still have succeeded.

“Well, they say that if you took all the money off the rich people and threw it up in the air, they would finish up with it again,'' he said.

In another interview he repeated a similar sentiment: “If someone knocked down my little ant hill, I would start building another”.

Mr Pratt leaves three children Anthony, Heloise and Fiona.