Doris fisher gap biography books

Business & Labor

(b. 1931 & 1928-2009)

Achievements

Biography current as of induction in 2011

Doris and Don Fisher had a simple idea: to make it easier to find a pair of jeans.  In 1969, they revolutionized the retail industry by opening the first Gap store on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco.

The Fishers, both born in San Francisco, were long-time family friends prior to marrying in 1953. Doris graduated from Stanford University, as one of the first women to earn an Economics degree. Don was refurbishing old hotels when a “lucky” happening occurred: he leased space to a Levi’s® jeans salesman. Don bought two pair of pants from the man, and when he found that they didn’t fit, he and Doris began a search for the right size at clothing stores in San Francisco. Their futile search ended with the idea that would lead to the Gap. With no retail experience, Doris and Don opened that first Gap store, selling Levi’s jeans and records. They delivered a shopping experience that was fun and the concept caught on. Credited with inventing specialty retail, the Fishers grew their company into a major global brand with more than 3,200 stores. The company portfolio today includes Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta.

To inspire and support Gap Inc. employees and customers to invest in the communities where they work and live, the Fishers formed Gap Foundation in 1977. The Fishers used the rewards of Gap Inc. to further personal commitments to education, the arts and community.

They became champions of public school reform organizations, including Teach For America. One of their most inspirational projects is growing KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools, a unique network of free, college-preparatory schools that now reaches over 32,000 low-income children.

Considered among the premiere collectors of contemporary art, the Fishers selected pieces that they could share and encourage a

American billionaire businesswoman

Doris Lee Feigenbaum Fisher (born August 23, 1931) is an American billionaire businesswoman who co-founded the Gap Inc. clothing stores with her late husband, Donald Fisher in 1969.

Early life

Fisher was born in San Francisco, California, to Harvard lawyer and California state legislator B. Joseph Feigenbaum and Dorothy (Bamberger) Feigenbaum of New York, both Jewish. She had two siblings: Ann F. Rossi and Joseph L. Feigenbaum.

Career

Fisher is a noted art devotee. She loaned the collection she and her husband spent their lives acquiring, which consists of 1,100 works by 185 artists, including Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, and Richard Serra, to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which, because of her support, is now the largest modern art museum in the United States. She co-founded the Gap with her husband Don Fisher which eventually became a $16 billion business with more than 3,500 stores worldwide.

She has been named as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes Magazine. She has served as a trustee of Stanford University, her alma mater.

Political views

In 2019, it was revealed that Fisher, together with her sons Robert, William, and John, had donated nearly $9 million to Americans for Job Security, a non-profit group that opposed Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

Personal life

She was married to Don Fisher. Their three sons – Robert, William, and John – continue to manage the business.

References

The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection is among the world’s greatest private collections of contemporary art. Founders of San Francisco–based Gap Inc., the couple began collecting prints to enliven the company’s offices in the mid-1970s, and they soon expanded their efforts to include paintings, sculptures, and drawings. They agreed early on that they would never buy a work unless they both liked it, a decision that has ensured that the collection reflects their shared sensibilities. Never interested in working with an advisor or a curator, they developed their knowledge independently by visiting galleries, museums, and artists’ studios around the world, building lifelong friendships with many artists along the way. As the late Don Fisher once put it: “The collection is the result of our looking a lot and then looking some more.”

The Fishers delved into the work of artists they admired over the course of many years, and as a result the collection is distinguished by significant concentrations of works by Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol, among others. Spanning more than three floors of the museum, the initial installation of the Fisher Collection at SFMOMA honors that strength with numerous monographic galleries and highlights the collection’s notable focus on American abstraction; American Pop, figurative, and minimal art after 1960; and German art after 1960.

Although the Fishers lived with many favorite artworks in their home, their belief in the power of art to enrich lives and spur creativity led them to share much of their collection with Gap employees by displaying it throughout the offices and in dedicated gallery spaces at the company’s headquarters. A similar spirit has guided the Fishers’ decades-long relationship with SFMOMA. Since the 1980s, they have served on the museum’s Board of Trustees, made exceptiona