Remembering The North Face Founder Douglas Tompkins. He also writes about the cannabis industry, outdoor adventure, Native American issues and the culture of the West. just for old times sake, to keep our hand in there and get a little bit of muscle tone. Other conservation projects that Tompkins spearheaded include: Envisioning "conservation as a consequence of production," Tompkins developed models of sustainable organic farming, which maintain soil health and ecological integrity at the same time that they provide for families and support the local economy. There wasnt anything he thought he wanted to do that he didnt do.. [5] Due to this, he was posthumously naturalized Chilean. 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. Douglas Tompkins, a noted conservationist and the founder of the North Face and Esprit clothing brands, died on Tuesday after a kayaking accident in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. He was 72. "It's almost as if we've had a subconscious wish to invite catastrophe so we can try to get out of it. Tompkins spent a "considerable amount of time" in 40F (4C) waters. Anyone can read what you share. [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. He flew airplanes, he climbed to the top of mountains all over the world, his daughter told The New York Times. General Carrera is a picturesque lake surrounded by snow-capped peaks in the Andes. He began rock climbing at age 12 in the Shawangunk Mountains in southern New York State; by 15 he was skiing and climbing mountains during family trips to Wyoming, according to the 2009 book Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet.. The 72-year-old, well-known as an outdoorsman and . At the time Chouinard, who first met Tompkins climbing as a teenager, was a private in the Army and stationed nearby. Sign Up. Doug Thompson. Profile. Tompkins Buell co-founded the Esprit clothing and The North Face brand with her first husband, Doug Tompkins whom she met when she picked him up while he was hitchhiking. Please remove some items to proceed. 2. At some stage, he lost consciousness. [21], In March 2018, the Chilean president Michelle Bachelet announced that the government was accepting the gift of 1 million acres from Tompkins Conservation and creating five new national parks and expanding three more, covering 11 million acres in all, the largest private land donation in history. Douglas Tompkins, the founder of North Face and Esprit, died in the terrain he was devoted to conserving. Most cattle and internal fences were removed, and a land management program was developed to restore native vegetation and habitat. In 2005, then-president Ricardo Lagos accepted this proposal, and the 726,000-acre (294,000ha) Corcovado National Park was born.[16]. No one can last an hour in.. According to a 2012 profile in Earth Island Journal. Tom Butler, editorial projects director for Conservacion Patagonica the land trust founded in 2000 by Tompkins and his second wife described the accident as a total shock to his family and friends. The accident took place in Chile, where Tompkins lived with his wife Kristine McDivitt, whilst he was kayaking with a group of five people. With a deep bond to Patagonia and Chile, Tompkins dedicated his life to nature and environmental conservation, inspired by the book Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. A former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, he has traveled extensively and covered a wide variety of issues during his career, including the Beijing Olympics, Hurricane Katrina, illegal American tourism in Cuba and a 40-day cross country car trip commemorating the history of automobile travel in America. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area. Doug Tompkins passed away doing the very thing he loved, and he will be remembered as one of the most important characters in environmental activism and ecology our generation has ever known. 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. Tompkins acknowledged the local objections to an outsider buying up land in Chile, but he believed the risks of going up against the Chilean government outweighed doing nothing: First of all, you never know if youre doing to right thing, he once said. Tompkins poses at his property in Ibera, in Corrientes Province, Argentina, in 2009. In 1989, Susie bought him out of Esprit for $170 million, and Tompkins turned all of his intensity, and most of his new wealth, toward conservation. Each of these farms produces a variety of products, including sheep, cattle, honey, berries, and organic vegetables. Along the way, he married Kristine McDivitt, the former CEO of Patagonia, who joined him in establishing numerous foundations. He returned to his hometown in Millbrook, but did not graduate from high school. Land conservation - Tompkins Conservation. People named Doug Thompson. A small facility in the Pillan farm processes honey and berries for jams, which are sold under the name Pillan Organics. Douglas Tompkins started The North Face in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood in 1966. Peter Fimrite is The Chronicle's lead science reporter, covering environmental, atmospheric and ecosystem science. Mr. Tompkins had first visited Chile in 1961 and frequently returned to climb, ski, kayak and hike. "Nobody believed he would really give the land back. "I mean, he was dressed in pressed chinos, a Brooks Brothers shirt, a light sweater, and a rain jacket. I have bathed in these waters, but you cant last more than five minutes, said Hartmann. After he sold Esprit, he started to dedicate himself to protecting nature. 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. Douglas Rainsford Tompkins was born on March 20, 1943, in Ohio. The two had two daughters and co-founded the Esprit clothing company. 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. Nevertheless, she adds, They have protected more land than any other private individuals in history.. The pair had already converted 480,ooo acres of their holdings to five national parks. 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. Dec 8, 2015, 11:29 PM EST. Buy used, trade in and fix your gear through Worn Wear. There wasnt anything we were afraid of, there wasnt anything we couldnt figure out how to do, said Susie Tompkins Buell, who was married to Mr. Tompkins until 1989. She is also noted for her close friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and her status as a . In the course of his career as a conservationist, Tompkins, originally from Ohio, had preserved some 2.2m acres of land in Chile and Argentina with his wife, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia. Four years later, he started the Esprit clothing company with his first wife, Susie Tompkins Buell. [14], In 2016, Tompkins Buell donated $500,000 to lawyer Lisa Bloom's firm in order to assist women who came forward with sexual harassment and assault allegations against Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of North Face, dies in kayak accident, Highway threatens Chilean preserve created by S.F. Tompkins believes in deep ecology, an absolutist version of environmentalismwhich contains little to surprise a North American reader. [25], In 2007 the Conservation Land Trust established a rewilding program to reintroduce native species which had been extirpated from the wetlands during the 20th century. "Doug and I were both overly cavalier about jumping into dangerous things," says Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and a lifelong friend of Douglas Tompkins, the pioneering conservationist. 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. Please read this powerful piece, Douglas Tompkins: A Force for Nature, to learn about his legacy. 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. Accessed 19 July 2020. Kris Tompkins continues the work they started together as president of Tompkins Conservation. Yvon Chouinard, 77, founder of clothing company Patagonia, was in a kayak with Jib Ellison, founder and CEO of sustainability consulting firm Blu Skye. Four years later, they launched Esprit. Tompkins and his second wife, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, also rank as the greatest private wilderness conservationists of all time, having bought and preserved 2.2 million acres of mountains, rivers, and rain forest in Chile and Argentina, an area equivalent to about three Yosemite National Parks. Emerging as one of the hottest brands of the era, the company grew into a transnational company operating in 60 countries. Text HELP for help. Who was Douglas Tompkins, the founder of The North Face, Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered, Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale. With Tompkins at the helm, Esprit ballooned in popularity, eventually reaching $1 billion in sales. [9] She led Clinton's fundraising efforts for 2008 in the San Francisco Bay area. He had the ability to walk his talk. To us, environmental and human sustainability represent an authentic lifestyle that defines our way of being in the world; an attitude centred around conscientiousness and concrete actions. Never Stop Exploring was the company mantra. Doug Tompkins, founder of Esprit and The North Face, is seen in a 2006 file photo at his organic garden near Pumalin Park in Chile. hey were on the fourth day of what was supposed to be an easy five-day paddle around the north side of Lake General Carrera, the vast turquoise-watered glacial lake which straddles the border of Argentina and. Nature lover and adventurer, he founded The North Facein 1964. August 5, 2021. Douglas Tompkins, an outdoorsman, environmental activist, conservationist and entrepreneur who co-founded the North Face clothing company in San Francisco, died Tuesday in a kayaking accident . Lake General Carrera is the size of an inland sea, 21 times larger than Manhattan, with temperatures ranging that dip to 4C (39F), even in the summer months. ", One area in which Tompkins was not cavalier, of course, was land preservation, and after news of his death spread, Tompkins' grand vision for his holdings got one more boost. Douglas Tompkins at his home in Pumalin Park in Chile in 2005. Nov 2007 - Present15 years 3 months. Read more on these topics: Americas, Latin America, South America, Outdoor. morto in Cile a 72 anni a causa di un incidente in kayack. As Langewiesche details, Tompkins efforts aroused suspicion in Chile, where land purchased to be held and not developed (and not turned into an creator of many jobs) was unheard of. [35], In 2007, he was appointed as an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, in recognition of his work restoring damaged landscapes. Tompkins, however, had spent nearly two hours in the water by the time he was rescued. This is a carousel. Flexible shipping options are available. Credit: Daniel Garcia/Getty Images. Mr. Tompkins eventually landed near Tahoe City, Calif., where he worked in the ski lodges and started his first business, the California Mountaineering Service. Soon enough, he came back and landed and everything was fine. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE TOMPKINS FAMILY, HERNAN MLADINIC, SAYING: I'm a troublemaker and I'm proud of it. He was rescued but later died from severe hypothermia. 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. Truthfully, its a bit ironic, said Butler. But perceptions changed once Tompkins began deeding the land to the public: By 2015, he had created three national parks in Argentina and two in Chile, and he was pushing for the creation of several more. // Doug is related to Jean B Thompson . The businessman and conservationist was 72. strong waves caused the groups kayaks to capsize, considerable amount of time in waters under 4 degrees Celsius, in 1964 to make and sell outdoor equipment, equal an area the size of nearly two Rhode Islands, never ever tried to make life easy for myself, owned by VF Corp. of Greensboro, North Carolina, A photo posted by The North Face (@thenorthface). Tompkins appointed himself "image director", developing his own marketing approach: overseeing all aspects of the company's image, from store design to catalogue layout, while his wife served as design director. We favour those who choose to be guided by ethical values, who respect ecosystems and all their life forms. Text STOP to cancel. . He began to invest in conservation groups in Patagonia and offer grants to local environmental groups. Sign up for exclusive offers, original stories, activism awareness, events and more. We are on the side of those who decide to live with passion and purpose, acting to make the world a better place. Around the lake, mountains rise up on all sides forming a highly variable microclimate the weather can turn from sunny and calm to snowing with gale-force winds in a matter of hours. Im incredibly saddened by this, but he lived on the edge, said Tompkins Buell, who remained close to her ex-husband. 2. It was just an open book of adventure.. These tents have been widely copied throughout the world. // Among other innovations, Tompkins created the first domed tents held up by bendable poles. He founded the North Face Inc, co-founded Esprit and various environmental groups, including the Foundation for Deep Ecology and Tompkins Conservation.[3]. I just realized at least what I was doing was making a lot of stuff that nobody needed and pushing a consumerist society, said Tompkins in a video from Conservacion Patagonica. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? How Dougs death will affect negotiations with the government, I dont know, said Butler. Douglas Rainsford Tompkins (March 20, 1943 - December 8, 2015) was an American businessman, conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and agriculturalist. 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. Saving the Last Frontier / Douglas and Kristine Tompkins fight Douglas Tompkins poses in his property in Ibera, near Carlos Pellegrini in Corrientes Province, Argentina, on November 5, 2009. We will share more memories of our friend in the coming days. The story of the Ukraine crisis as told by men, women, and soldiers. Of all the winning candidates of the 2006 municipal elections, Thompson had the highest percentage of donations coming from corporations (81.9%). What he was doing for conservation has been a complete turnaround.. Those trips convinced Tompkins that he could make better outdoor equipment than anything on the market. South American news stations reported that Mr. Tompkins was in the water for a lengthy period before he was rescued. They were an eco power couple, said Conservacion Patagonicas Butler. [7], Tompkins spent the years between 1960 and 1962 ski racing and rock climbing in Colorado, Europe, and South America. Growing increasingly concerned about the ecological impacts of the fashion industry, Tompkins decided to leave the business world in the late 1980s. Track orders, save products, easy hassle-free returns & exchanges. Douglas Tompkins, the founder of North Face and Esprit, died in the terrain he was devoted to conserving. When he wasnt able to get the right seeds for tree restoration in nearby nurseries, he opened his own. 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 . An earlier version referred to Laurence Alvarez-Roos as the groups guide, rather than a group member. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. "There are a lot of special interests that don't want to see land set aside." Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), collared peccary (Peccary tajacu), South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus), and red-and-green macaw (Ara chloropterus) have been reintroduced to the wild, and a captive breeding program for jaguars (Panthera onca) was created to support reintroduction of jaguars to the parks.[24]. Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. 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