FISHER, DONALD

FISHER, DONALD (1928– ), U.S. entrepreneur, merchant. Fisher, a native Californian, was a real estate developer until he was 41. Then, frustrated at not finding a pair of jeans that fit properly, he and his wife, Doris, decided to open their own clothing store in San Francisco. That was the beginning of Gap Inc., a company that grew into the biggest specialty store chain in the U.S., with thousands of units in North America, Europe, and Japan. After earning a B.S. from the University of California in 1950, Fisher went into real estate development. He found his true calling in 1969 when, dissatisfied with the jeans he purchased, he launched his own business. The then popular phrase "generation gap" inspired the company name. At first, Gap sold only Levi's jeans as well as discounted record albums and tapes to lure younger customers. By the mid-1970s, Gap – which then had about 200 outlets – began adding private label merchandise, as did many other retailers. The company continued to open more stores, but it was apparent to Fisher that he needed someone with a merchant's eye to make the stores more compelling. In 1983, he hired millard s. drexler as his deputy and Gap's fortunes began to soar. The same year, Fisher acquired Banana Republic, a chain of clothing stores specializing in safari looks. When that concept fell out of fashion, Banana Republic was restructured. In 1994, Gap launched another division, Old Navy, a discount chain that became an instant hit. The following year, Fisher stepped down as Gap's chief executive officer and gave the post to Drexler, whose merchandising acumen had propelled the company to unprecedented heights. A soft economy and increased competition hurt Gap's performance in the late 1990s and at the beginning of the new millennium, but a turnaround started in 2002. Fisher remained chairman until December 2003, relinquishing the title to his son Robert, a former Gap executive. At the time, Gap was a 3,070-unit retailing giant with annual sales of some $15 billion, and the Fishers' initial investment of $63,000 in 1969 had made them billionaires several times over. Fisher was named to the California Board of Education in 2001. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fortune (Aug. 1998). (Mort Sheinman (2nd ed)