Gaetano Gagliano's passion for printing began when he was an apprentice, learning the trade at age 12 at an Italian seminary in Alba, southeast of Turin.
 
Forced to quit after 18 months, due to breathing problems in the northern air, the boy returned to Sicily, continuing his family's farming tradition. But he never forgot his first love.
 
In 1954, at 37, Gagliano moved to Canada and laid track for CP Rail for two years. Using his life savings — $700 — he set up a basement printing shop in his home near St. Clair Ave. and Dufferin St., naming it St. Joseph Printing in honour of the carpenter saint.
 
Recipient of the 2006 New Pioneers Entrepreneurship Award, Gagliano has since turned it into Canada's largest privately owned communications company, employing more than 2,000 people, printing retail chain catalogues and publishing 11 consumer magazines, including Toronto Life.
 
"He just fell in love with his faith and the printing trade at the seminary. They are something ingrained in him," says son Tony, executive chair and CEO of St. Joseph Communications. "From the start, he wasn't focusing on being the largest company, but building an important company that deals with people properly and honestly."
 
From its humble beginnings, St. Joseph grew into a storefront shop, with a handful of employees printing birth announcements and business and confirmation cards. Later it moved to an industrial unit near Keele St. and Lawrence Ave., as it went from letterpress to offset printing.
 
In the early 1980s, when Gagliano learned of the emerging Internet technology, he called in IT staff to bring his personal office online. "Here you have a man in his 60s wanting to learn about the Internet," recalls Tony, who speaks on behalf of his aging father. "He just recognized the importance to stay on top of the communication technologies."
 
At 88, Gagliano still visits his office daily, hard work being a value he took care to instill in his 10 children, five of whom now work in the company.
 
Since the company's inception five decades ago, Gagliano has donated 10 per cent of profits each year to charitable causes. The family launched the St. Joseph Family of Companies Foundation in 2000.
 
In his golden years, Gagliano founded Salt and Light Television, a Catholic television network, to "move people to do great things" for the needy.
 
He was previously awarded the Order of Canada, an honourary degree from Ryerson University in 1998, and an honourary degree from St. Francis Xavier University this spring.