LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Kerry Packer: Life
built 818 days ago
Packer was beset by health problems for most of his life, but was blessed with a loving empire of willing employees, who were only too happy to donate body parts to ensure his longevity. The first, and happiest, volunteer was Bruce Gyngell, who donated both corneas and a patella following Packer's near-fatal fall off a Reno blackjack stool in 1965. By his death, only 8% of Packer's actual body remained; by that stage, too, the Gyngell corneas had ... failed, compelling Packer to use up nearly a third of the world's remaining silicon in a pair of spectacles so thick he saw everything eight minutes after it had occurred, placing him at a crucial disadvantage during the collapse of One.Tel. Packer also had a series of heart operations in the 1990s with the purpose of giving him one. Operations to give him a soul had previously failed.
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Life started to turn bad for Lopes, who was raised byfoster parents,when her relationship with Packer broke down in the late 1980s. His decision to stop financially supporting her drove her to despair, and she attempted to kill herself three times before succeeding in 1991.
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Fellow media mogul Rupert Murdoch this week paid tribute to Kerry Packer, his old friend and competitor, saying: "He was the most successful businessman of our generation. He was a man who you could truly say was larger than life. A fierce competitor who was sometimes controversial but at the same time capable of great generosity to people and organizations in need. Australia will not be the same without him."
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Gerald Stone, in his recent book Who Killed Channel 9?, recounted that Packer divided the final days of his life between Trethowan and Ros, his wife of more than 40 years. He ... revealed that in his 30s Packer had a brief, torrid affair with his then employee Ita Buttrose, who became a magazine editor.
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Packer in his lifetime was an icon for those who espoused the philosophy of whatever it takes. There was much to admire in his force of personality and in his exploits, but under no account should he be mistaken for a model citizen. He had utter contempt for politicians, for the arts, for idealism of any kind, for the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and for those who did not share his world view. His ethics were defined simply as whatever the law allows.
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Packer, a larger than life character known as a sports fanatic and prodigious gambler, had amassed a fortune of Aust. $6.9 billion ($5.1 billion), according to Australian business magazine BRW's annual rich list.
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