Douglas Tompkins, the adventurer turned North Face founder turned billionaire conservationist, died yesterday following a kayaking accident. According to reports, Tompkins, 72, was paddling on Lago General Carrera on the border between Chile and Argentina in high winds, with waves up to 10 feet tall, when his boat capsized. Three of his companions, including long-time friend and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, survived after being rescued by helicopter.

Credited with preserving more land than any other private citizen, Tompkins and his wife, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, had acquired roughly 2.2 million acres of conservation land, part of which comprises Pumalin Park in southern Chile. For his parklands protection efforts and organic farming projects, Tompkins received numerous honors.

“A mountaineer with first ascents on multiple continents, Douglas Tompkins was known as the entrepreneur who founded The North Face outdoor retailer and cofounded the Esprit clothing company with his first wife, Susie Tompkins (Buell). After leaving the business world ‘to pay his rent for living on the planet,’ as Tompkins frequently said, the businessman-turned-conservationist spent the last quarter-century of his life living in South America. Through a suite of charitable organizations (see, tompkinsconservation.org) he worked to create national parks, buy and restore degraded farmlands, and help advance conservation activism.”

Tompkins leaves behind his wife; his mother Faith Tompkins and brother John C. Tompkins of Millbrook, NY; daughter Summer Tompkins Walker and son-in-law Brooks Walker and their children Brooks Thomas Walker, Della Walker, and Susie Kate Walker of San Francisco; daughter Quincey Tompkins Imhoff and son-in-law Dan Imhoff and their children Gardner and Willa Imhoff of Healdsburg, CA.

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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