Indian American doesn’t buy car but a ghost town

Today, Krishnan Suthanthiran owns Kitsault, a ghost town north of Vancouver, abandoned by miners’ families more than 22 years ago. Suthanthiran, who was born in India and made his fortune selling medical devices and real estate in the Washington area, said he jumped at the chance to buy Kitsault because, ‘‘one, it is beautiful up there, and two, I couldn’t believe it wasn’t being used’’.

Kitsault is set to become an eco-tourist destination or an artist’s colony. Suthanithiran envisions events here from scientists’ conferences to wedding receptions, evening salmon-roasts on the beach, bans on smoking and cars, maybe a high-speed hydrofoil to bring tourists 85 miles from Prince Rupert.

‘‘I feel like a kid in a candy shop,’’ he said.

Suthanthiran came to Carleton University in Ottawa in 1969 at age 20 on a postgraduate scholarship.

A friend’s father had taken up a collection to rescue him from his family grocery store in India and send him to college.

Suthanthiran got a master’s degree in engineering and then went to Washington to make medical devices with an oncologist. He started his own firm in 1977, Best Medical International, specialising in radiation treatment catheters used to fight cancer, the disease that had claimed his father. The firm now employs a staff of 130 in Virginia and 100 in Europe.

Its owner is not a flashy millionaire. No gold Rolex. He says he hasn’t been shopping in three years. He does not own a car.

The only extravagance he admits to is a two-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas. He doesn’t gamble, he says, but likes the shows and marvels at the operation of the giant hotels. He hasn’t borrowed money in 20 years. —LAT-WP