James Irvine (1827–1886) was born in County Down, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on December 27, 1827, the second to the youngest of nine children.
When Ireland's potato crop failed in 1845, James Irvine and his younger brother William were among those who left for the United States.
In 1854, he purchased an interest in a San Francisco commission house on Front Street, operated by a relative, John Lyons.
He began investing his profits in income-producing San Francisco real estate and soon became a wealthy man.
[4] He established the James Irvine Foundation in 1937, an entity dedicated to the "general well-being of the citizens and residents of the state of California."
[6] He died of a heart attack on August 24, 1947 while on a fishing trip in Montana at the Flying D Ranch with Irvine Company manager William Bradford Hellis and real estate broker Walter S.
[11] Smith also participated in "the resurgence of right-wing extremism in Orange County"[12] and served on the board of the American Phoenix Project, whose founder has been linked to the deadly Jan. 6 United States Capitol attack.