When life gave him grapes, Italian-Canadian entrepreneur Pierluigi (Louie) Tolaini made fine wine.

The founder of both the TransX Group of Companies and a renowned Tuscan winery, Tolaini died of cancer on Sunday morning. He was 83.

His death was announced by Banville and Jones Wine Co., a Winnipeg firm started by his daughter Tina Jones, who was inspired by her father the wine enthusiast.

"He’ll be remembered as a legendary entrepreneur in the province of Manitoba, and not only in the trucking industry. The province benefitted from his hard work and his vision and his passion," Jones told the Free Press.

Tolaini was born into a poor family in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, a town in Lucca, Tuscany, in 1936. At age 19, with a Grade 6 education, he moved to Virden, in western Manitoba. He picked up three jobs to make money to send home to his family.

One of his jobs involved hauling water to oil fields. He did so with a truck he bought with money borrowed from his aunt in Virden, and that, Jones said, is how her father’s legacy began.

Tolaini bought more trucks and started hauling general freight and livestock between Virden and Winnipeg — marking the unofficial beginning of TransX, which would become one of the continent’s top carriers, with 1,500 trucks and 3,000 employees.

The company’s website handles approximately 72,000 shipments every month.

Canadian National Railway acquired it in March 2019, although TransX is still based out of Winnipeg and operates independently.

Louie Tolaini founded the TransX Group of Companies and a renowned Tuscan winery. Tolaini died of cancer on Sunday morning. He was 83. (Submitted)

Lia Tolaini-Banville, Tolaini’s oldest daughter, said Sunday her father waited to sell the company for so long because "his business was his life."

"He loved work; he loved every minute of it," Tolaini-Banville said, adding he was a dynamic man and mentor to many.

His daughters fondly recall his mantra, which he repeated often since leaving Italy as a teenager: "I will never, never be poor again. I will never eat polenta. I will never drink bad wine, and some day I will come back and make the best wine in Italy."

In his 60s, Tolaini made good on his promise when he founded an award-winning winery at Tolaini Estate in Tuscany in 1999. After that, he split his time between Tuscany and Winnipeg.

Throughout his lifetime, Tolaini was given numerous awards — including the 2016 Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association’s entrepreneur of the year award, and the Manitoba Trucking Association’s Red Coleman Service to Industry Award in 2017.

Association president Terry Shaw credits Tolaini for his career in the industry; Shaw was hired on as a junior staffer at TransX in 1996.

"The reason I’m trucking right now is because of TransX and because of Louie Tolaini — a very entrepreneurial gentleman. He came over to Canada with very little and built one of Canada’s biggest trucking companies," Shaw said.

Berardino Petrelli, president of the Order of Sons and Daughters of Italy, echoed those sentiments Sunday. Tolaini’s life represented "the Italian dream," Petrelli said.

Not only was Tolaini a successful entrepreneur, he said, but also a quiet philanthropist in Winnipeg’s Italian community. "He was always in the background doing something for the Italian community," Petrelli said.

Tolaini’s family — including his wife, three children, two stepchildren, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren — plan to commemorate his life when large gatherings are permitted again in Manitoba.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie