By CEO standards, Bob Kierlin had modest needs. The co-founder of Fastenal, an international seller of nuts, bolts and other supplies for manufacturing and construction firms, took a salary of $120,000 a year at its peak in the 1990s, with no bonuses or stock options; that was less than some Fastenal store managers earned. He clipped grocery coupons, and bought some of his suits secondhand, for $60 apiece. On business trips, he stayed in discount motels and often shared a room with a colleague. He paid for his own meals on the road.

Kierlin wasn’t hurting financially: He had shares in the company worth hundreds of millions of dollars from his original stake. And the company’s board was willing to pay him far more. But Kierlin said he didn’t need it.

“I was born into a family that never had an awful lot of things,” he told The Wall Street Journal in 2002. “We just learned to live with what we had. I never felt I needed a lot of money.”

Kierlin, who died Feb. 10, 2025 at the age of 85, didn’t have a personal secretary or even his own parking place outside the drab concrete head office in his hometown of Winona, Minn. Much of the furniture inside that headquarters was used.