Local media in Hong Kong on Monday continued to splash front pages with the death of Henry Fok Ying-tung, calling him "a remarkable man from remarkable times" and "irreplaceable."

All newspapers in Hong Kong continued to look back to Henry Fok's rags-to-riches legend on Monday, two days after Fok, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body, passed away in Beijing on Saturday night. Fok had battled with cancer for years before his life came to an end.

"Henry Fok Ying-tung was truly an icon," the South China Morning Post (SMCP), Hong Kong's leading English newspaper, said in an editorial. "Fok's accomplishments were also a product of histimes. They were unusual and can never be repeated."

"Irreplaceable" is a term that seems apt given the praise he has received from all sides of the political spectrum, given Fok's generous donations to the society through service and charity, according to the SMCP's editorial.

The foundation Fok set up in 1984 is now one of Hong Kong's biggest philanthropic organizations.

"For what he gave, he never sought recognition," the editorial said, referring to hundreds of millions of dollars Fok donated to universities, sports facilities and charitable organizations.

The Sing Tao Daily also posted an editorial Monday to mourn Fok's death, hailing his accomplishments as "far beyond the huge wealth he earned."

"His unselfishness and devotion for the country had earned great respect," the daily said.

The Ming Pao News, another major newspapers in Hong Kong, said in his editorial that "Fok had set an example for generations to come with his true love with the hometown and the country, with his endeavor to promote sports and tolerance he showed towards different views."

Fok was born on a sampan fishing boat in 1923.

His family never had much, and Fok did not receive a proper education. His studies, at Queen's College in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, were ruined by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in1941, when Fok was still in junior high school. By then, his father had died in a boating wreck, leaving the young Fok to juggle small-time laboring jobs while helping to run the family's small boat business.

Fok's industriousness rose to the surface, however, and by the end of the war he had begun laying the foundation of his business empire in the early 1950s.

In 1954, Fok set up a construction and real estate company that heralded the practice of soliciting buyers for property even before the flats had been built, simultaneously revolutionizing and riding the wave of the decade's housing boom in Hong Kong.

In 1980, Fok became a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body.

A few years later, Fok helped open the country's first five-star hotel -- the White Swan Hotel -- in Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong Province.

In 1993, Fok was elected vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, formally elevating his status as a state leader.

Fok did not give up chasing his dreams even in the 1990s, continuing to invest millions of dollars in a high-technology business park in Nansha, deep in Guangdong province at the mouth of the Pearl River. He is said to have visited the site more than 500 times, and last year pledged 800 million HK dollars to the University of Science and Technology to support the initiative.

Fok, however, will not see the formal completion of its development.

In between all of this, Fok found time to indulge his passion for soccer, serving as president of the Hong Kong Football Association and finding time to kick the ball around even into his later years.