US 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 officials said. He was 72.
Tompkins was on General Carrera Lake in Patagonia in southern Chile with a group of five others when his kayak flipped and he fell into the icy waters, the Aysen regional health service said in a statement.
Local media reported that he was knocked over by a strong wave. All five of his companions were unharmed.
The service said he was admitted about 1:30pm to the regional hospital in Coyhaique, about 1,832km south of Santiago, but was pronounced dead of severe hypothermia hours later.
Tompkins founded The North Face, now part of VF Corp, in the 1960s as a small ski and backpacking retailer in San Francisco. The company markets clothing and gear to hikers, mountain climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
Tompkins also cofounded clothing company Esprit, which started with he and his then-wife selling clothes out of the back of their car before becoming an internationally recognized brand, according to his conservation Web site.
Tompkins later grew into an active environmentalist. He began acquiring vast tracts of land in the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina in the 1990s, which he converted into protected nature parks.
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