who are saving our planetmr tompkins attended pomfret school in connecticut but never graduated and did not attend college said tom butler a spokesman for the foundation for deep ecology which mr tompkins founded in 1990instead he set off in search of adventure at 17 he headed to colorado working in aspen and squirreling away money for a year before flying to europe to ski the alps he then traipsed through the andes mountains in south america until his money ran out in 1962 forcing him to return to the united statesimagecreditscott dalton for the new york timesmr tompkins eventually landed near tahoe city calif where he worked in the ski lodges and started his first business the california mountaineering service mr tompkins would sometimes hitchhike and in the summer of 1963 he was picked up by a young woman susie buell who shared his enthusiasm for the outdoors the two began a romance and marriedtogether they founded the north face as a small ski and backpacking retail shop in the north beach neighborhood of san francisco never stop exploring was the company mantrathere wasnt anything we were afraid of there wasnt anything we couldnt figure out how to do said susie tompkins buell who was married to mr tompkins until 1989 it was just an open book of adventureseveral years later the couple along with a third partner jane tise started selling plain jane dresses out of a station wagon that business grew to become the multibilliondollar retailer esprit known for its casual sportswear and lifestyle clothingesprits success in the 1980s fueled much of the conservation work that occupied mr tompkins for much of the rest of his life but by 1990 he had grown disillusioned with the corporate world and sold his stake in esprit for what was reported as more than 150 millionmr tompkins and his second wife the former kristine mcdivitt a former chief executive of the clothing company patagonia moved to south america in the 1990s they split their time between homes in chile and argentina concentrating their conservation efforts in both countriesthe remote expanses of southern chile facing ecological threats from human activity like logging offered opportunities for the type of largescale conservation envisioned by this husbandandwife teammr tompkins used his fortune to buy roughly 22 million acres through his various conservation groups mr butler said that included pumaln park one of the worlds largest private parks protecting 715000 acres of rain forest that stretches from the pacific ocean to the andes it is named in honor of the pumas that roam the parks virgin forestsat his death mr tompkins had been working on creating new parks in patagonia and in the iber wetlands in northeastern argentinathe global apparel company vf corporation purchased the north face in 2000in addition to his wife and ms walker mr tompkins is survived by his mother faith his brother john and another daughter quincey tompkins imhoffmr tompkins was given many environmental awards but his efforts were not immune