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 . [1] For high school, she attended Lowell High School in the class of 1960 but she did not graduate. A military patrol boat rescued three of the boaters, and a helicopter lifted out the other three, according to the army. Tompkins Buell is often described as Hillary Clinton's soul mate. The Brazilian government has started evicting illegal gold miners, responsible for the health emergency that has hit the Yanomami people. They split their time between homes in Chile and Argentina, concentrating their conservation efforts in both countries. 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. Douglas Tompkins, the founder of the North Face and Esprit clothing brands and a noted conservationist, died Tuesday after a kayaking accident in the Patagonia region of Chile. 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. In 1968, Tompkins, his wife Susie, and her friend Jane Tise began selling girls dresses, which they had planned on the kitchen table, out of the back of a VW bus. We are deeply saddened by the news of Doug Tompkins passing. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOCTOR, SERGIO GAETE, SAYING: 6. Resides in High Point, NC. He died from hypothermia at a nearby hospital. Accessed 19 July 2020. Please read this powerful piece, " Douglas Tompkins: A Force for Nature ," to learn about his legacy. With Tompkins at the helm, Esprit ballooned in popularity, eventually reaching $1 billion in sales. Doug Tompkins, the co-founder of The North Face and Esprit clothing lines, died Tuesday while kayaking in Patagonia, Chile. Esprits success in the 1980s fueled much of the conservation work that occupied Mr. Tompkins for much of the rest of his life. By providing your email address, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. [4] The Tompkinses were focused on park creation, wildlife recovery, ecological agriculture, and activism, with the goal of saving biodiversity. Ends 2.28, while supplies last. They appeared to be clad in windbreakers instead of wetsuits. 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. See Photos. In 2005, then-president Ricardo Lagos accepted this proposal, and the 726,000-acre (294,000ha) Corcovado National Park was born.[16]. Tompkins origins as an environmentalist lie in the early 60s, when the high-school dropout spent several years climbing and skiing everywhere from Colorado to South America. Get a beanie on orders $125+ for XPLR Pass members. 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. Peter Fimrite is The Chronicle's lead science reporter, covering environmental, atmospheric and ecosystem science. This is a carousel. [11] Tompkins Buell held a fundraiser for David Brock's Media Matters at her San Francisco home. Douglas Rainsford Tompkins (March 20, 1943 - December 8, 2015) was an American businessman, conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and agriculturalist. [12] Buell along with George Soros and other Democracy Alliance members John R. Hunting; Paul Rudd (co-founder of Adaptive Analytics); Pat Stryker; Nicholas Hanauer; ex-Clinton administration official Rob Stein; Drummond Pike; real estate developer Robert Bowditch; Pioneer Hybrid International-heir and congressional candidate Scott Wallace; Gail Furman; real estate developer Albert Dwoskin; and Taco Bell-heir Rob McKay, funded the Secretary of State Project, an American non-profit, 527 political action committee focused on electing reform-minded progressive Secretaries of State in battleground states, who typically oversee the election process. He was a very inspired person. This article was amended on 15 December 20 15. It was there that Tompkins and Chouinard set out on their final paddle together. The pair tried repeatedly to right the boat. So I went to do something else.. He was rescued but later died from severe hypothermia. Tompkins, however, had spent nearly two hours in the water by the time he was rescued. It is named in honor of the pumas that roam the parks virgin forests. 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. 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. 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 . Il surfista cileno, ambasciatore di Patagonia, si batte per proteggere Punta de Lobos e per trasformarla in una riserva naturale per il surf. Douglas Thompson. Despite vital signs, and the fact that he had not been resuscitated for a long period, we tried everything possible, thinking we could turn the situation of hypothermia into our favour, but after several hours we realised that the situation was irreversible. In addition, he was a skilled bush pilot.[16]. It still sells high-performance climbing and backpacking equipment. Douglas Lynn Thompson, 67. Doug was a dear mentor to our company and a good friend to many of us here at Patagonia. I want him down at the baseball diamond right now!' Nov 2007 - Present15 years 3 months. This Walking Pad treadmill made getting 10,000 steps a HOKA dropped a brand new version of their most popular shoe, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). The family briefly lived in New York City before settling in Millbrook, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. On Tuesday, The North Face, which is now owned by VF Corp. of Greensboro, North Carolina, paid tribute to its co-founder on Instagram. On December 8, 2015, Tompkins was kayaking with five others (including Patagonia, Inc. founder Yvon Chouinard) on General Carrera Lake in southern Chile when strong waves caused their kayaks to capsize. Remembering The North Face Founder Douglas Tompkins. [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. 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. Class of 1963. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE TOMPKINS FAMILY, HERNAN MLADINIC, SAYING: "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. Those close to him recall a brilliant man with an absolute passion for nature. You have exceeded the maximum number of line items for your cart (50). To have lost his life in a lake and have nature just sort of gobble him up is just shocking.. Each farm pays close attention to developing sustainable practices.[31]. In 1991, Mr. Tompkins bought the 42,000-acre Reihu Farm and founded the Pumaln Project, dedicated to the protection of the lands primeval native rain forest, which was being threatened by logging. He flew airplanes, he climbed to the top of mountains all over the world, said his daughter Summer Tompkins Walker. 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. [24], Led by Tompkins, the Conservation Land Trust acquired 150,000 hectares of old cattle ranches bordering the provincial park, including habitats not then represented in the park. Doug Tompkins paced the San Francisco sidewalk, hawking downhill skis to beatniks and groggy sailors. He later eschewed the business world to focus on environmentalism, purchasing large swaths of land for . Doug and Kris were responsible for expanding a natural reserve covering 400 hectares of forest in Chile to almost 890,000 hectares divided between Chile and Patagonia. Land use is highly political here, more than most places: If we wanted to retire in peace we wouldn't be here. The North Face founder Doug Tompkins poses for a photograph with Jeff Johnson and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard during the filming of the documentary 180 Degrees South in Chile. The Iber project was a private conservation enterprise that was spearheaded by Tompkins, working with George Soros, Harvard University,[22] and Rewilding Argentina. At Beijing 2022 politics and superpower rivalry are dominating the headlines. To the group sitting in their sea kayaks, only millimeters from the water, the waves must have looked like mountains. ", (Tompkins climbing Mt. For those with antennae particularly attuned to schadenfreude, the headlines announcing the death of an eccentric-seeming billionaire in a kayaking accident in Chile might present a story thats impossible to resist. We want to do something good, but youve got to be very nave and out to lunch to think that certain sectors of society are not going to put up resistance, Mr. Tompkins told The New York Times. Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine pose in the front of their house at the estate "Rincon del Socorro" in Ibera, near Carlos Pellegrini in Corrientes Province, Argentina, on November 5, 2009. Areas of distinguished expertise: Asset Optimization algorithms. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Ridgeway grabbed a loop of rope on one of the other kayaks and was pulled to shore. Through the Foundation for Deep Ecology, Tompkins published a series of large-format, activist photograph books on environmental issues, including: In addition, The Foundation for Deep Ecology had a long history as a grant-maker in categories such as Biodiversity and Wilderness, Ecological Agriculture, and Megatechnology and Economic Globalization, although in-house publishing is now its main focus. So in 1964, at the age of 21 and with his first wife, Susie Tompkins Buell, he took out a bank loan to start The North Face as a mail-order catalog. Directory of locations. Tompkins spent a "considerable amount of time" in 40F (4C) waters. He had the ability to walk his talk. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? In an extraordinary example of womens empowerment, a market in Indias Manipur state has been run entirely by women for the past 500 years. 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 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 in southern Chile. He was a passionate advocate for the environment, and his legacy of conservation is one that we hope to help continue in the work we do every day. He already loved Chile and Argentina, from all his trips to Patagonia, and land there was cheap, so he and Kristine a former Patagonia CEO who Tompkins married in 1993 began acquiring immense swaths of it. He was very brave and that was his way of being; he always lived very intense, in that anything could happen. Douglas Tompkins, the founder of North Face and Esprit, died in the terrain he was devoted to conserving. The kayak capsized and Tompkins fell into the icy water. Both men described it as the best and most important expedition of their lives. With all eyes currently fixed on the war in Ukraine, Paralympians competing in Beijing can show us the bright side of international cooperation. Doug Tompkins in Patagonia National Park. 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. Four years later, they launched Esprit. We meet the women working to reverse trends of disengagement with studies, normalise motherhood in universities, and counteract gender disparities to improve access to academic careers for Colombian women and mothers. Everything we make has an impact on people and the planet. Kris Tompkins continues the work they started together as president of Tompkins Conservation. [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. Sign up for exclusive offers, original stories, activism awareness, events and more from Patagonia. 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. By 1986, Esprit had grown into a global brand, hitting $800 million in sales. But in December, the 72-year-old Tompkins and Chouinard, along with climber Rick Ridgeway and three others, were on a five-day, 50-mile kayak paddle in southern Chile when the group ran into what Chouinard calls a perfect trap. 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.. Above:Doug Tompkins, Rick Ridgeway, Yvon Chouinard on the summit of Cerro Kristine in 2008. "Doug got accused of being a Nazi or planning to bring down girls and give them abortions," Chouinard says. Together they founded the North Face as a small ski and backpacking retail shop in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Please remove some items to proceed. "It's almost as if we've had a subconscious wish to invite catastrophe so we can try to get out of it. In the process of buying up land for what he hoped would be 12 national parks, he reforested denuded acres, cultivated sustainable farms, built visitor centers and established hiking trails. "We had 40-mile-per-hour winds at our back," he says. I'm a troublemaker and I'm proud of it. He was 72. // [3] She is also noted for her close friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and her status as a Democratic Party mega-donor. 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. He was eventually pulled from the water, but died of hypothermia at Coyhaique Regional Hospital. That business grew to become the multibillion-dollar retailer Esprit, known for its casual sportswear and lifestyle clothing. It was taboo to advocate for environmental causes, said Langman, who believes Chileans came to embrace Tompkins in the last years of his life. The global apparel company VF Corporation purchased the North Face in 2000. He returned to his hometown in Millbrook, but did not graduate from high school. Ive never ever tried to make life easy for myself, Tompkins told The Guardian in a 2009 interview. The company co-founder, who died last week in a kayaking accident, was an outdoorsman and environmentalist who launched two billion-dollar businesses. The following day, the Chilean government announced that Pumaln Park, one of Tompkins earliest acquisitions, will become a national park in March 2017. Web SpecialsSave on Gear for Your Next Trip, Remembering The North Face Founder Douglas Tompkins. Read more on these topics: Americas, Latin America, South America, Outdoor. Most cattle and internal fences were removed, and a land management program was developed to restore native vegetation and habitat. "For a while, he and Kristine had to live in the American embassy to hide out.". 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. 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. We are all shocked, though in some way, he was doing what he loved, enjoying nature.. He was 72. He flew off and there we were on the beach, she said. We will share more memories of our friend in the coming days. Photograph Courtesy Chris Jones). 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. Dec. 8, 2015. 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. We are the space in which education becomes determination, feeling becomes action, the goal becomes solution and result. Woman Funded Sexual Harassment Cases Against Trump", "Meet one of Hillary Clinton's biggest donors in California. They have also lived in Eden, NC and Liverpool, NY. 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. Esprit emerged from the buyout so deeply in debt that in less than two years it went into technical default on its outstanding loans. When the storms finally cleared, they made the first ascent of the now-classic California Route, with Tompkins yelling repeatedly at Tejada-Flores, their designated cameraman, "Hey, Fellini, how about getting some footage?" "There are a lot of special interests that don't want to see land set aside." It was just an open book of adventure.. Douglas Tompkins started The North Face in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood in 1966. "Doug would call up and scream at my commander, Hey, damn it, this is colonel so-and-so! Part of HuffPost Business. Photograph Courtesy Chris Jones), Tompkins' convictions never wavered. They divorced in 1989. 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. His conviction, said Chin, allowed him to take life one battle at a time. "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." She, her sister and the other passengers were told to sit on the tail wing to give the plane traction and then jump off as the plane caught air. Owner at Doug Thompson Hypnosis. If you are using a screen reader and having difficulty please call us at 1-800-638-6464. 3. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Create a free Patagonia account. 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. The retail store named after the coldest, most unforgiving side of a mountain was founded in North Beach as a way to equip mountaineers, explorers and climbers. [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. Chouinard paddled safely to shore, but Tompkins and Ridgeway, sharing a two-seater, capsized 200 yards from land, in water below 40 degrees. Doug Thompson in North Dakota. She is also noted for her close friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and her status as a . We are the ones who keep putting obstacles in our own way by buying more land. No one else was seriously injured in the accident. After he sold Esprit, he started to dedicate himself to protecting nature. [20] The Tompkinses' conservation efforts focused on preserving wild landscapes and biodiversity. "Then we got this side wind, so we had huge waves coming in on either side.". While there, he borrowed a motorcycle to ride across Chile. Well also keep you informed of exclusive offers, activism updates, special events and more. Douglas Rainsford Tompkins was born on March 20, 1943, in Ohio. The deep ecologists are purists. The threat of a Russian invasion has changed the lives of Ukraines people. 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]. The 72-year-old, well-known as an outdoorsman and . In 1999, William Langewiesche provided The Atlantic with one irreplaceable piece of writing on Tompkins ideological shift, which led him to sell his stake in Esprit and move to South America and denouncing the consumerism that built his fortune. Doug is related to Jean B Thompson . He used to always tell me, Dont let your imagination get in the way of your potential. He is gone, but he will not be forgotten.. McDivitt Tompkins will continue as the organizations leader. [5], Just to the south of Pumalin, Corcovado National Park represents one of Tompkins's completed conservation projects. By 1978, they had boosted annual sales at the company to more than $100 million. He had done a lot of really dangerous things in remote, wild places for his entire life, and here he is, on a sort of easy-going camping trip with his old buddies, and should end up perishing in an accident it is not what any of us ever expected.. He met his first wife, Tompkins Buell, while hitchhiking. Dont worry, we'll only contact you about activism here. Quest'opera distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale. They were an eco power couple, said Conservacion Patagonicas Butler. Although the couples environmental activism won them many accolades and praise, they also encountered controversy and criticism. [11], In 1964, Doug started The North Face, Inc. as a mail order and retail company, selling rock climbing and camping equipment. Feeling a growing sense of urgency about proposed dam projects and encroaching oil and gas developments, he then started to plow his money directly into buying up land that was inexpensive and also under threat. The two had two daughters and co-founded the Esprit clothing company. In 1993, he married Kristine L. McDivitt, a former chief executive of Patagonia; the two worked together on conservation projects. Dec 8, 2015, 11:29 PM EST. "A review of a multispecies reintroduction to restore a large ecosystem: The Iber Rewilding Program (Argentina)". and the mark he left in terms of conservation and vision will live on. These tents have been widely copied throughout the world. [23] Its goal was to strengthen protection and restore habitat and biodiversity in the Iber Wetlands in Corrientes Province, Argentina. He founded the Foundation for Deep Ecology in 1990, which supports environmental activism (see deep ecology), and The Conservation Land Trust in 1992, now called Tompkins Conservation, which works to protect wildlands, primarily in Chile and Argentina.[16][19]. 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. People named Doug Thompson. [1] The Tompkins divorced in 1989. [29], In the area around Pumalin, the Hornopiren, Vodudahue, Ventisquero, Pillan, and Reihu farms serve as exemplars of small-scale ecological agriculture and as informal park ranger stations. 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. He flew airplanes, he climbed to the top of mountains all over the world, his daughter told The New York Times. Fast on his feet and quick with a retort, the twenty-two-year-old thrived on . // But his work will have no end. Zamboni, Tala, Sebastin Di Martino, and Ignacio Jimnez-Prez (2017). (Tompkins, Dorworth, Jones and Chouinard in 1968. [3] In 2010, Thompson won two thirds of the vote in his ward, defeating Mark Scharfe and Bob Masaro. Doug was a dear mentor to our company and a good friend to many of us here at Patagonia. At the time in South America, there was no precedent for private individuals much less foreigners spending gargantuan sums to save wilderness. Tompkins believes in deep ecology, an absolutist version of environmentalismwhich contains little to surprise a North American reader. In 1989, the Japanese art publisher Robundo published Esprit, the Comprehensive Design Principle (.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}ISBN4947613203), which documented the all-encompassing design principles that Tompkins had created for the brand.[17].

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