24 Facts About Douglas Tompkins

Douglas Rainsford Tompkins was an American businessman, conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and agriculturalist.

Douglas Tompkins founded the North Face Inc, co-founded Esprit and various environmental groups, including the Foundation for Deep Ecology and Tompkins Conservation.

Douglas Tompkins had assembled and preserved the land which became the largest gift of private land to any South American government.

Douglas Tompkins was born in Conneaut, Ohio on March 20,1943, the son of an antiques dealer and decorator.

Douglas Tompkins spent the first few years of his life in New York City before his family moved to Millbrook, New York.

Douglas Tompkins graduated from Indian Mountain School, a pre-prep school in Lakeville, Connecticut, in 1957.

Douglas Tompkins returned to his hometown in Millbrook, but did not graduate from high school.

Douglas Tompkins spent the years between 1960 and 1962 ski racing and rock climbing in Colorado, Europe, and South America.

In 1964, Douglas Tompkins borrowed $5,000 from a bank to found The North Face, Inc.

Douglas Tompkins designed tents that were some of the first to avoid a pole in the middle, by using bendable rods threaded through exterior sleeves instead.

Two years later, Douglas 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.

Douglas Tompkins sold The North Face with the intention of a focus on adventure film making.

The 2010 film 180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless describes a modern-day recreation of this journey and highlights the conservation work on which Douglas Tompkins had been working.

Douglas Tompkins became a skilled whitewater kayaker, claiming first descents of rivers in California, Africa, and South America.

Douglas 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.

Douglas Tompkins founded the Foundation for Deep Ecology in 1990, which supports environmental activism, and The Conservation Land Trust in 1992, now called Tompkins Conservation, which works to protect wildlands, primarily in Chile and Argentina.

Just to the south of Pumalin, Corcovado National Park represents one of Douglas Tompkins's completed conservation projects.

The Ibera project was a private conservation enterprise that was spearheaded by Douglas Tompkins, working with George Soros, Harvard University, and Rewilding Argentina.

In northeastern Argentina, Douglas Tompkins managed cattle ranches in Corrientes Province and polyculture grain and fruit farms in Entre Rios Province.

Douglas Tompkins was involved in several large environmental campaigns in Chile and Argentina, such as the "Patagonia Sin Represas" campaign, which opposed the construction of dams on two of the largest and wildest rivers in the Patagonia region of Chile.

On December 8,2015, Douglas Tompkins was kayaking with five others on General Carrera Lake in southern Chile when strong waves caused their kayaks to capsize.

Douglas Tompkins was flown, by helicopter, to a hospital in nearby Coyhaique, where he died hours later from severe hypothermia.

Douglas Tompkins was 72 years old when he died and is survived by his second wife, Kristine, two daughters, brother and mother.

Douglas Tompkins is buried at a small cemetery near the Lodge at Valle Chacabuco in Parque Patagonia.