The outdoorsman who turned Orvis into a lifestyle powerhouse

1927–2021

Leigh H. Perkins turned his love of the outdoors into a multimillion-dollar business. In 1965, the former mining and metals executive took out a $200,000 loan to buy Orvis, a 109-yearold mailorder fishing-tackle shop in Manchester, Vt. An Orvis customer since college, Perkins transformed the firm from a purveyor of niche fishing gear into an upscale outdoors brand, selling everything from graphite fly rods to engraved drinking glasses, linen dresses, and polyester dog beds. Perkins spent more than 250 days a year hunting and fishing, often testing the company’s kit himself. Orvis “sold a way of life,” he said, “and it made sense to me that the boss was living that life.” When Perkins handed Orvis over to his sons in 1992, it had grown into a $90 million–ayear business; that number has since quadrupled.

Leigh H. Perkins

The scion of a wealthy Cleveland family, Perkins “inherited an abiding interest in the outdoors from his mother,” who took him fishing and alligator-hunting, said The Washington Post. After graduating from Williams College in Massachusetts, he spent 15 years working in industry, rising to become the vice president of a gas welding and equipment firm. He “quit after he learned that the president’s son was taking over the business,” and bought Orvis.

“Shortly after, Perkins opened the Orvis fly-fishing school in Vermont, thought to be the first of its kind in the U.S.,” said The New York Times.

The idea was to democratize the world of fly-fishing, traditionally the domain of the upper crust, and to build the company’s customer base. There was only one reason to go fishing, Perkins explained: “To enjoy yourself. Anything that detracts from enjoying yourself is to be avoided.”