Esprits success in the 1980s fueled much of the conservation work that occupied Mr. Tompkins for much of the rest of his life. People named Doug Thompson. Suffering from severe hypothermia, Tompkins was flown to Coyhaique Regional Hospital, where he later died in the intensive care unit. [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 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.. Tompkins's first major conservation project was Pumaln Park in the Palena Province of Chile, an 800,000-acre (320,000ha) area of Valdivian temperate rain forest, high peaks, lakes, and rivers. Dr. Douglas J. Thompson is an oncologist and is affiliated with UNC Health Blue Ridge.He received his medical degree from Medical College of Georgia and has been in practice for more than 20 years. He founded the North Face Inc, co-founded Esprit and various environmental groups, including the Foundation for Deep Ecology and Tompkins Conservation.[3]. There wasnt anything he thought he wanted to do that he didnt do.. Il miliardario Douglas Tompkins aveva dedicato gli ultimi anni alla battaglia ecologista. Nature lover and adventurer, he founded The North Facein 1964. [30], In northeastern Argentina, Tompkins managed cattle ranches in Corrientes Province and polyculture grain and fruit farms in Entre Ros Province. 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. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. They were an eco power couple, said Conservacion Patagonicas Butler. 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. The following day, the Chilean government announced that Pumaln Park, one of Tompkins earliest acquisitions, will become a national park in March 2017. "Doug would call up and scream at my commander, Hey, damn it, this is colonel so-and-so! Soon Tompkins was itching for another ambitious project. Aerial view of the estate "Rincon del Socorro" of US billionaire Douglas Tompkins, in Ibera, near Carlos Pellegrini in Corrientes Province, Argentina, on November 5, 2009. He died from hypothermia at a nearby hospital. The high-school dropout turned outdoors-loving mogul turned eco-baron devoted the last quarter of his life to conservation advocacy. Instead, in his own kayak, Boyles held on to Tompkins body and grabbed a short rope dropped from the helicopters door. "We just weren't prepared," Chouinard admits now. [21] Through creating public-access infrastructure, including trails, campgrounds, visitor centers, and a restaurant, Tompkins sought to promote wilderness experience, in hopes of inspiring a deeper environmental ethic in the park's many thousands of visitors. It is named in honor of the pumas that roam the parks virgin forests. Never Stop Exploring was the company mantra. A local prosecutor, Pedro Salgado, told radio Bo Bo that the lake was known for unpredictable weather conditions. Beginning in the mid-1960s, he and Susie Tompkins Buell, his first wife, co-founded and ran two companies: the outdoor equipment and clothing company The North Face and the Esprit clothing company. Of all the winning candidates of the 2006 municipal elections, Thompson had the highest percentage of donations coming from corporations (81.9%). // [7], Tompkins spent the years between 1960 and 1962 ski racing and rock climbing in Colorado, Europe, and South America. Douglas Rainsford Tompkins (March 20, 1943 December 8, 2015) was an American businessman, conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and agriculturalist. 6. The 72-year-old, well-known as an outdoorsman and . 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. In an extraordinary example of womens empowerment, a market in Indias Manipur state has been run entirely by women for the past 500 years. At some stage, he lost consciousness. Peter Fimrite is The Chronicle's lead science reporter, covering environmental, atmospheric and ecosystem science. [6], Tompkins was born in Conneaut, Ohio on March 20, 1943, the son of an antiques dealer and decorator. 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. In particular, many locals in Chile and Argentina expressed resentment and distrust for the duo's massive land purchases. In 2005, then-president Ricardo Lagos declared this area a Nature Sanctuary, a special designation of the Chilean state, granting it additional environmental and non-developmental protection. Doug Tompkins paced the San Francisco sidewalk, hawking downhill skis to beatniks and groggy sailors. Tompkins believes in deep ecology, an absolutist version of environmentalismwhich contains little to surprise a North American reader. Tompkins is buried at a small cemetery near the Lodge at Valle Chacabuco in Parque Patagonia. 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. But with the case of Douglas Tompkins, the headlines and context dont match up. Revisiting their work in The Atlantic last year, Diana Saverin wrote of how Tompkins fealty to his ideology kept him a misunderstood figure. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area. The brand was greatly success and he sold it in 1968 in order to dedicate himself to the brand Esprit with his first wife, Jane Tise. Part of HuffPost Business. It is an ecocentric view that rejects the idea of inherent human superiority and instead gives equal moral weight to all elements of naturefrom the living to the inanimate. After he sold Esprit, he started to dedicate himself to protecting nature. She is also noted for her close friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and her status as a . The Grateful Dead played at the store's opening, and beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg and jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie often dropped by the store. or. [5] Due to this, he was posthumously naturalized Chilean. The family briefly lived in New York City before settling in Millbrook, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. 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". "We had 40-mile-per-hour winds at our back," he says. But his work will have no end. 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. Dont worry, we'll only contact you about activism here. Esprit emerged from the buyout so deeply in debt that in less than two years it went into technical default on its outstanding loans. 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. 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). Besides his wife and daughter, he is survived by his mother Faith Tompkins and brother John Tompkins, both of Millbrook, N.Y.; daughter Summer Tompkins Walker of San Francisco; and five grandchildren. He most recently visited our headquarters in Alameda, CA in 2013 and again inspired us to live a life of outdoor exploration. See Photos. 3. It is easy for this to happen, said Hartmann. It was there that Tompkins and Chouinard set out on their final paddle together. Flexible shipping options are available. But by 1990 he had grown disillusioned with the corporate world and sold his stake in Esprit for what was reported as more than $150 million. Please remove some items to proceed. Born in 1943 in Conneaut, Ohio, Tompkins displayed an almost intractable restlessness his entire life. By 1986, Esprit had grown into a global brand, hitting $800 million in sales. COYHAIQUE, CHILE (DECEMBER 8, 2015) (TVN - NO ACCESS CHILE/CNN/CHILE WEBSITES) By providing your email address, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Pumaln Park was one of Tompkins earliest acquisitions. 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]. Instead, he set off in search of adventure. With all eyes currently fixed on the war in Ukraine, Paralympians competing in Beijing can show us the bright side of international cooperation. He had assembled and preserved the land which became the largest gift of private land to any South American government. With them were river conservation advocate Weston Boyles, 29, and Laurence Alvarez-Roos, 49, co-owner and guide at Bio Bio Expeditions, an adventure travel outfitter based in Chile and California. 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.. Il surfista cileno, ambasciatore di Patagonia, si batte per proteggere Punta de Lobos e per trasformarla in una riserva naturale per il surf. Thompson had . 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. morto in Cile a 72 anni a causa di un incidente in kayack. No one else was seriously injured. Learn more about our environmental and social responsibility program. Tompkins spent a "considerable amount of time" in 40F (4C) waters. 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. 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. He must have felt the frustration of an environmentalist who heard himself sounding like the very developers he wanted to stand against.. (Tompkins, Dorworth, Jones and Chouinard in 1968. Remembering The North Face Founder Douglas Tompkins. Tompkins also became a skilled whitewater kayaker, claiming first descents of rivers in California, Africa, and South America. The accident took place in Chile, where Tompkins lived with his wife Kristine McDivitt, whilst he was kayaking with a group of five people. 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. [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. 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. Yvon Chouinard, 77, founder of clothing company Patagonia, was in a kayak with Jib Ellison, founder and CEO of sustainability consulting firm Blu Skye. Mr. Tompkins eventually landed near Tahoe City, Calif., where he worked in the ski lodges and started his first business, the California Mountaineering Service. 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?" [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. [13] The Alliance was critical in getting California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie re-elected. 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. Select this result to view Doug W Thompson's phone number, address, and more. Get a beanie on orders $125+ for XPLR Pass members. Doug Tompkins in Patagonia National Park. At the time in South America, there was no precedent for private individuals much less foreigners spending gargantuan sums to save wilderness. Friend of the great climber and surfer Yvon Chouinard, Patagonias founder, they opened a new route on Mount Fitz Roytogether and revolutionised climbing and mountaineering. After selling his interest in Esprit, Tompkins turned his efforts toward southern Chile, where he had spent much time climbing, kayaking, and skiing, to focus on land conservation and environmental activism. In 1968, Tompkins headed off on a six-month road-adventure trip from California to Patagonia, along with Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, and Chris Jones (calling themselves the "Fun Hogs"), who made the third ascent of Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia in 1968. 3. 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. "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." He was 72. Directory of locations. 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. National Geographic photographer and film-maker Jimmy Chin said Tompkins was still on fire when he undertook an expedition for the 2010 film 180 Degrees South, which recreated the 1968 trip he and Chouinard made to Patagonia. In the 1990s Tompkins and his second wife, Kris McDivitt Tompkins bought and conserved more than 2million acres (810,000ha) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina, exceeding that of any other private individuals in the region, thus becoming among the largest private land-owners in the world. In 1993, he married Kristine L. McDivitt, a former chief executive of Patagonia; the two worked together on conservation projects. Both men described it as the best and most important expedition of their lives. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOCTOR, SERGIO GAETE, SAYING: 11. 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. VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF THE COYHAIQUE HOSPITAL WHERE NORTHFACE FOUNDER DOUGLAS TOMPKINS WAS TREATED AND PASSED AWAY Owner at Doug Thompson Hypnosis. Doug also had a visceral dislike for authority, writes Chouinard, and always relished breaking the rules.. South American news stations reported that Mr. Tompkins was in the water for a lengthy period before he was rescued. "The Iber Wetlands: Argentinas Preeminent Wildlife Reserve". Above:Doug Tompkins, Rick Ridgeway, Yvon Chouinard on the summit of Cerro Kristine in 2008. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SPOKESPERSON FOR THE TOMPKINS FAMILY, HERNAN MLADINIC, SAYING: The best result we found for your search is Doug W Thompson age 80+ in North Port, FL. 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.. This is a carousel. He flew airplanes, he climbed to the top of mountains all over the world, his daughter told The New York Times. "The presidents of Argentina and Chile called," says Chouinard, "and said, Hey, let's get the rest of these parks done.' 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. Accessed 19 July 2020. 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. That business grew to become the multibillion-dollar retailer Esprit, known for its casual sportswear and lifestyle clothing. What he was doing for conservation has been a complete turnaround.. Douglas Tompkinsthe founder of Esprit and The North Faceis using his fortune to build massive national parks in Chile and Argentina. He later eschewed the business world to focus on environmentalism, purchasing large swaths of land for . 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. 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. Most cattle and internal fences were removed, and a land management program was developed to restore native vegetation and habitat. To have lost his life in a lake and have nature just sort of gobble him up is just shocking.. ", For nearly five decades they managed to do just that. ALSO: The 2.1 Million Acres in South America Protected by Doug Tompkins. [1] He spent the first few years of his life in New York City before his family moved to Millbrook, New York.

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