For a woman who preferred to stay in the background, Doris Fisher left a mark that will hang in closets—and on museum walls—for decades, the Wall Street Journal reports. The co-founder of the Gap, who helped turn a single San Francisco shop selling Levi’s, records, and cassettes into a global clothing chain, died Saturday in San Francisco at 94, the company announced Monday. Gap CEO Richard Dickson called her “a pathbreaking entrepreneur at a time when that was highly unusual for women,” crediting her “quiet determination” with shaping both the retailer and its philanthropy. Fisher and her late husband Don opened the very first store in 1969 with $63,000. Per SFGate, the couple’s founding idea was a question Don asked: “What if someone put together in one store all the styles, colors, and sizes Levi Strauss had to offer?” The company went public in 1976, the AP reports.
Armed with an economics degree from Stanford, Fisher helped set the company’s early priorities, served as a merchandising consultant, and sat on its board until 2009. She’s credited with naming the store “The Gap” thanks to the proliferation of the term “generation gap” to describe the disconnect between Baby Boomers and their parents, trimming “generation” to avoid dating the brand. She’s also credited with spotting what young shoppers actually wanted—think hip huggers and bell bottoms—and wearing Gap fashions head-to-toe while working in stores. A known philanthropist, she and her husband launched the humanitarian Gap Foundation in 1977 and amassed a major modern and contemporary art collection later entrusted to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for a century-long loan. Fisher is survived by three sons, 10 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.
