Gap founder Don Fisher dies, leaving art collection
DON Fisher, the man who founded clothing giant Gap, died yesterday aged 81.
Fisher opened his first shop with his wife Doris forty years ago after struggling to find a pair of jeans that fitted.
The husband and wife team named the store after the “Generation Gap” in a bid to appeal to a younger customer.
The retail powerhouse now has over 3,000 stores across 25 countries and also owns the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains. Gap reported sales of $14.5bn (£9.12bn) in its 2008 fiscal year.
Fisher continued to act as Gap’s chief executive until 1995 and remained as chairman until 2004.
On Friday, just days before Fisher’s death, it emerged he had agreed to leave his prestigious personal art collection, which includes some of the 20th
Century’s most influential works by Richard Diebenkorn, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning to The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Fisher’s wife Doris started the Gap Foundation in 1977 to help communities where the firm operates.