Leigh H. Perkins, who purchased The Orvis Company in 1965 and transformed it into one of the country’s top outdoors brands, has died.
Leigh H. Perkins, who purchased The Orvis Company in 1965 and over the next three decades transformed it into one of the country’s top outdoors brands, died May 7 in Monticello, Fla. He was 93.
He was born in Cleveland in 1927 to a mother, Katharine, who was a dedicated angler and hunter at a time when there were few women who engaged in those sports. “She taught me to fish and hunt, and she was my principal sporting companion for the first 18 years of my life,” he wrote in his 1999 autobiography, “A Sportsman’s Life: How I Built Orvis by Mixing Business and Sport.”
Over the next 27 years, he grew Orvis from a niche business with 20 employees and $500,000 in annual sales to a mail-order and retail chain with more than 700 employees and sales exceeding $90 million. Among the products he is credited with inventing was the retractable zinger to hold fly-fishing tools and the first Gore-Tex rainwear. He also developed the Orvis Dog Nest bed, the first of its kind sold in the U.S.
Perkins retired in 1992 and the business passed to his sons Leigh H. “Perk” Perkins Jr. and David Perkins, with Perk Perkins serving as president and chief executive officer. Today, the company is run by Perk Perkins’ son, Simon. It operates 77 stores and eight outlets.
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