Sign Up. [4] The Tompkinses were focused on park creation, wildlife recovery, ecological agriculture, and activism, with the goal of saving biodiversity. Tompkins believes in deep ecology, an absolutist version of environmentalismwhich contains little to surprise a North American reader. Mr. Tompkins attended Pomfret School in Connecticut but never graduated and did not attend college, said Tom Butler, a spokesman for the Foundation for Deep Ecology, which Mr. Tompkins founded in 1990. [7], In 1990, Tompkins Buell led a leveraged buyout that gained her control of the company, and netted her an estimated $150 million. He had assembled and preserved the land which became the largest gift of private land to any South American government. A keen conservationist, he bought up huge swathes of land in southern . According to a 2012 profile in Earth Island Journal. Tompkins' eventual movie, Mountain of Storms, never achieved commercial success, but it inspired a generation of outdoor-adventure road-trippers. Mr. Tompkins was described as an adventurer and risk taker who employed his brilliant imagination both in business and in trying to save the Earth. // Douglas Tompkins died at the age of 72, on the 8th of December: billionaire, ecologist and co-founder of The North Face, renowned outdoor apparel brand. [18] Subsequently, in 1989 and 1994, he sold his interests in the other Esprit entities around the world. Shop The North Face Canada End of Season Sale for winter deals on jackets, backpacks, coats, shoes, hoodies, and other outdoor gear for men, women, and kids. Cerro Fitz Roy, Chile. [23] Its goal was to strengthen protection and restore habitat and biodiversity in the Iber Wetlands in Corrientes Province, Argentina. He founded the Tompkins Conservation with his second wife, Kristine -- herself a former chief executive of the outdoor clothing company Patagonia -- and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into conservation projects. Pumaln Park was one of Tompkins earliest acquisitions. Douglas Tompkins, famed environmentalist and co-founder of The North Face, died on Tuesday after a kayaking accident in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. In 1994, The Conservation Land Trust (CLT), along with U.S. philanthropist Peter Buckley, acquired 208,000 acres (84,000ha) of native forest that was slated for logging, adjacent to vast areas of federal land under the jurisdiction of the Chilean Armed Forces. 13. [39][40] He was 72 years old and survived by his second wife, Kristine (McDivitt), two daughters, brother and mother.[13][41]. "Women's fashion was not first on Doug's list of things to be interested in," says Dorworth, "but he was interested in running a good business." We are deeply saddened by the news of Doug Tompkins passing. "For a while, he and Kristine had to live in the American embassy to hide out.". In a report last year, The Atlantic attempted to explain the enormity of the couple's conservation efforts: They have purchased enough land in Chile and Argentina to equal an area the size of nearly two Rhode Islands, and they plan to donate these ice-coated peaks, red-rock canyons and coastal volcanoes to the respective governments in the form of national parks. Those close to him recall a brilliant man with an absolute passion for nature. He used to come home from adventures and say, Well, I cheated death again. Thats the way he lived. [12] Two years later, Tompkins sold out his stake to Kenneth "Hap" Klopp for $50,000, using the profit to join his wife in co-founding Esprit, a fashion house. Read more on these topics: Americas, Latin America, South America, Outdoor. Concerned about the environmental impact? He had absolutely no respect for authority.". That trip had a big influence on both Doug and I, said Chouinard, who five years later founded the Patagonia clothing company, which operates under a mandate to take care of the environment. Find a local store near you. They have protected more land than any other private individuals in history.. @doug.thompson.566. Butler said he felt fortunate to have spent 10 years as part of the whirlwind of work surrounding Tompkins, whom he described as an inspiring, exhausting, sometimes exasperating leader, a brilliant man with an absolute passion to saving wild nature. morto in Cile a 72 anni a causa di un incidente in kayack. Those trips convinced Tompkins that he could make better outdoor equipment than anything on the market. Before the rescue, Tompkins spent a considerable amount of time in waters under 4 degrees Celsius, or under 40 degrees Fahrenheit, The New York Times reported, citing a local news story. Doug Tompkins millionaire philanthropist and co-founder of the clothing companies North Face and Esprit shared a two-person kayak with Rick Ridgeway, 66, a veteran mountain climber and environmentalist who made the first American ascent of K2. He said that the group was perhaps too confident for the lakes fickle conditions. Soon enough, he came back and landed and everything was fine. North Face co-founder and conservation luminary Doug Tompkins, 72, died yesterday in Coyhaique, Chile. It is named in honor of the pumas that roam the parks virgin forests. Tompkins poses at his property in Ibera, in Corrientes Province, Argentina, in 2009. They appeared to be clad in windbreakers instead of wetsuits. Flexible shipping options are available. He died from hypothermia at a nearby hospital. That business grew to become the multibillion-dollar retailer Esprit, known for its casual sportswear and lifestyle clothing. Growing increasingly concerned about the ecological impacts of the fashion industry, Tompkins decided to leave the business world in the late 1980s. Several years later the couple, along with a third partner, Jane Tise, started selling plain Jane dresses out of a station wagon. [32], Tompkins' environmental work won him respect and accolades outside of South America: in 2012, the African Rainforest Conservancy awarded Tompkins and his wife its "New Species Award";[33] in 2007, the International Conservation Caucus Foundation awarded its "Good Steward" award to him and his wife, Kris;[34] in 2008, the American Alpine Club awarded him the David R. Brower Award, for his work preserving mountain regions; in 2009, Latin Trade named him the "Environmental Leader of the Year". He was eventually pulled from the water, but died of hypothermia at Coyhaique Regional Hospital. He and his second wife, Kris Tompkins, whom he married in 1993, bought more than 2 million acres of wilderness in Chile and Argentina and devoted themselves to creating parks, protecting wildlife and supporting ecologically sustainable agriculture. (Douglas Tompkins was in a very serious condition, they carried out advanced resuscitation techniques, his body temperature was at 19 degrees Celsius when he arrived (at the hospital). Next, Tompkins spent various parts of two years rock climbing in Europe, Colorado, and California. The good he did in the world will not end.. One of these, Parque Patagonia, is on track to cover 650,000 acres of mountains just south of 90-mile-long General Carrera Lake. 11. If youre not willing to take the political heat, then you shouldnt get into the game of land conservation, especially on a large scale., Douglas Tompkins, 72, North Face Founder, Dies in Kayaking Accident, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/business/douglas-tompkins-72-north-face-founder-dies-in-kayaking-accident.html. For 20 years we have operated to catalyse social change, to awaken and feed a new state of ecological awareness, to inspire and promote new business and consumption models for people as well as companies. Select this result to view Doug W Thompson's phone number, address, and more. Instead, he set off in search of adventure. [13] The Alliance was critical in getting California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie re-elected. The early years set the design standard of good quality sleeping bags, backpacks, and mountaineering tents. His daughter, Quincey Tompkins Imhoff, of Healdsburg, remembered a time as a girl when her father landed a small plane on a remote beach in Baja California only to notice later that the tide was rolling in and covering the wheels. Douglas A Thompson, 47. Please read this powerful piece, " Douglas Tompkins: A Force for Nature ," to learn about his legacy. At a ceremony for signing of the accord between government and the foundation, Tompkins' long-term friend Yvon Chouinard claimed that No other human has ever created this many acres of protected wildlands". By the time the craft had towed the two to shore, Tompkins had been in the water for more than an hour. Quest'opera distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale. He had the ability to walk his talk. The third result is Doug Lee Thompson age 60s in El Dorado Hills, CA in the Serrano neighborhood. According to a 2012 profile in Earth Island Journal, many Chileans and Argentines worried that his land purchases and outspoken opposition to salmon farming and dam construction threatened their national sovereignty and stunted economic development. E-mail: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com. "Doug would call up and scream at my commander, Hey, damn it, this is colonel so-and-so! " says Chouinard. Douglas Tompkins died at the age of 72, on the 8th of December: billionaire, ecologist and co-founder of The North Face, renowned outdoor apparel brand. [24][25] In December 2015 the Trust donated these lands, including espinal, malezal grasslands, and forests, to the Argentine government to create a strictly-conserved national park to be called Iber National Park. The remote expanses of southern Chile, facing ecological threats from human activity like logging, offered opportunities for the type of large-scale conservation envisioned by this husband-and-wife team. For half a century, Tompkins claimed new climbing routes on big mountains, surfed throughout the Western Hemisphere, and made first descents on whitewater rivers around the globe. In 1992, he formed the Conservation Land Trust, which created Pumaln Park, a nature sanctuary and Chiles largest public park. He flew back about an hour later and dropped off a backpack with a sleeping bag, some snacks and a note that said, I cant land till low tide, write me messages in the sand that I can read from the air., We spent all day there thinking we were doomed, Tompkins Imhoff said. As The New York Times noted, this included buying more than 740,000 acres of land in Chile and turning most of it into Pumaln Park, a nature sanctuary. High school. The Brazilian government has started evicting illegal gold miners, responsible for the health emergency that has hit the Yanomami people. In addition to his wife and Ms. Walker, Mr. Tompkins is survived by his mother, Faith; his brother, John, and another daughter, Quincey Tompkins Imhoff. Nov 2007 - Present15 years 3 months. See Photos. It was there that Tompkins and Chouinard set out on their final paddle together. If you are using a screen reader and having difficulty please call us at 1-800-638-6464. He graduated from Indian Mountain School, a pre-prep school in Lakeville, Connecticut, in 1957. Soon Tompkins was itching for another ambitious project. (Tompkins, Dorworth, Jones and Chouinard in 1968. Suffering from severe hypothermia, Tompkins was flown to Coyhaique Regional Hospital, where he later died in the intensive care unit. A local prosecutor, Pedro Salgado, told radio Bo Bo that the lake was known for unpredictable weather conditions. Tompkins, who co-founded North Face and Esprit, died in the ecological empyrean of Patagonia that he had sought to protect after cashing out of his life in America and moving to South America. Ridgeway grabbed a loop of rope on one of the other kayaks and was pulled to shore. Web SpecialsSave on Gear for Your Next Trip, Remembering The North Face Founder Douglas Tompkins. Remembering The North Face Founder Douglas Tompkins. [1], She attended primary school at the Convent School of the Sacred Heart, Ojai Valley School, and Miss Burkes School. His conviction, said Chin, allowed him to take life one battle at a time. The pair had already converted 480,ooo acres of their holdings to five national parks. Track orders, save products, easy hassle-free returns & exchanges. The story of the Ukraine crisis as told by men, women, and soldiers. You have exceeded the maximum number of line items for your cart (50). Message and data rates may apply. Zamboni, Tala, Sebastin Di Martino, and Ignacio Jimnez-Prez (2017). The family briefly lived in New York City before settling in Millbrook, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. So in 1967 he sold The North Face for $50,000 to become a filmmaker like Bruce Brown, whose The Endless Summer had recently become a global hit. Not only was Tompkins an experienced outdoorsman and respected environmentalist he had also launched two billion-dollar retail companies: outdoor apparel company the North Face and womens clothing manufacturer Esprit. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Chiles army said that a patrol boat rescued three of the boaters and that a helicopter lifted out the other three. Unable to right their kayak, the pair held on to their boat while the other members of their group attempted to coordinate a rescue.Using a satellite phone, the group called for a helivac while Ellison and Boyles attempted to pull Tompkins from the water. Il surfista cileno, ambasciatore di Patagonia, si batte per proteggere Punta de Lobos e per trasformarla in una riserva naturale per il surf. He was very brave and that was his way of being; he always lived very intense, in that anything could happen. If we have any hope of a thriving planetmuch less a businessit is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. It set the course for what we were going to do later in life., In his autobiography Let My People Go Surfing, Chouinard credits Tompkins with introducing him to whitewater kayaking and with mentoring him at a critical time in his companys life. Conservation Finance Network. "Conservation is not without its critics and opposition," he acknowledged in an interview just before he died. Doug also had a visceral dislike for authority, writes Chouinard, and always relished breaking the rules.. San Francisco socialite Summer Tompkins Walker, the daughter of North Face and Esprit co-founder Douglas Tompkins, has lost another bruising round in her battle to claim a portion of her late . These parks are our life's work, not the clothing chains we created, selling people clothes they don't need. Tompkins also became a skilled whitewater kayaker, claiming first descents of rivers in California, Africa, and South America. Peter Fimrite is The Chronicle's lead science reporter, covering environmental, atmospheric and ecosystem science. [5] Tompkins Buell's then-husband Doug Tompkins, whom she had married in 1964 after the pair met while hitchhiking, joined the company to work on the business side and he put up funds to cover the cost of garment factory production. The cases of people surviving such serious cases of hypothermia as a result of accidents are extremely rare. By 1986, Esprit had grown into a global brand, hitting $800 million in sales. It is known for spectacular geological formations, unpredictable weather and cold water, generally below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. U.S. environmentalist and businessman Douglas Tompkins, the founder of outdoor clothing and equipment company The North Face, died on Tuesday during a kayaking trip in Chile, local health . Douglas Tompkinsthe founder of Esprit and The North Faceis using his fortune to build massive national parks in Chile and Argentina. Iber Provincial Reserve, established in 1983, encompasses 1,300,000 ha of wetlands, grasslands, forest, and rangelands, including both publicly-owned lands and private cattle ranches. Weve pledged 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. Select this result to view Doug W Thompson's phone number, address, and more. Truthfully, its a bit ironic, said Butler. VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF THE COYHAIQUE HOSPITAL WHERE NORTHFACE FOUNDER DOUGLAS TOMPKINS WAS TREATED AND PASSED AWAY . Lived In Greensboro NC, Raleigh NC. Rumors now range from the conspiratorial to the phantasmagorical: Tompkins is creating a second Israel in South America; he is siphoning off the worlds last freshwater resources for other American millionaires; he is building bunkers for a pending nuclear war. Also in 1997, Tompkins Buell filed a lawsuit against Esprit, seeking about $4 million in reimbursements from the company for tax payments she made after selling much of her stake in the company to investors.[7][8]. [1][5] Plain Jane was making $2 million a year by 1970. Douglas Rainsford Tompkins (March 20, 1943 - December 8, 2015) was an American businessman, conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and agriculturalist. I remember coming here the first time in 1996, and if you were talking about environmental issues you were looked upon as a radical, almost a communist. Text HELP for help. The kayak capsized and Tompkins fell into the icy water. The threat of a Russian invasion has changed the lives of Ukraines people. Ahead of the trip, Tompkins, 72, had described the planned 30km paddle with his longtime buddies as just for old times sake, to keep our hand in there and get a little bit of muscle tone.. doug tompkins north face map south america. Doug Thompson in North Dakota. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Mr. Tompkins had first visited Chile in 1961 and frequently returned to climb, ski, kayak and hike. In 2006, Thompson won in a landslide, defeating Robert Fowler with 85% of the vote. In 1997, CEO Jay Margolis banned Tompkins Buell and all members of her family from entering Esprit's headquarters. Mr. Tompkins would sometimes hitchhike, and in the summer of 1963 he was picked up by a young woman, Susie Buell, who shared his enthusiasm for the outdoors. "A review of a multispecies reintroduction to restore a large ecosystem: The Iber Rewilding Program (Argentina)". 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