Minnesota philanthropist Eugene Sit dies

Eugene Sit
Eugene Sit, who co-founded the Minnesotans' Military Appreciation Fund after a successful career in the mutual fund industry, died Tuesday.
Photo courtesty Minnesotans' Military Appreciation Fund

The head of one of Minnesota's leading investment firms has died. Eugene Sit, 69, died Tuesday from pancreatic cancer.

Sit was born in China, and arrived in the U.S. at the age of 10 without any money. The firm he started, Sit Investment Associates, now manages $8 billion in assets.

Sit also founded the Minnesotans' Military Appreciation Fund, which provides financial support for returning soldiers.

Skip Krawczyk worked with Sit on the Military Appreciation Fund, and is a longtime family friend. He describes Sit as the "Mr. Clean of the mutual fund industry."

"His investment house was built on four cornerstones -- honesty, integrity, character and hard work. Don't do anything wrong, you have a big responsibility to your investors, to the people that work with you. If they're trusting you with their money, they should be able to go to bed at night and know you're going to do the right things with it and not have any problems ever with it," Krawczyk said.

Sit was inducted this year into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame.

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