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Gertrude Boyle is the spirited matriarch and chairwoman of the board of the international outdoor apparel and footwear manufacturer Columbia Sportswear Company. Hailed by Working Woman magazine as one of America’s Top 50 Women Business Owners and named one of 1994’s Best Managers by Business Week Magazine Mrs. Boyle is the center of Columbia’s irreverent, award-winning advertising campaign. She portrays cantankerous Mother Boyle, the overbearing taskmaster who enforces Columbia’s demanding quality standards. This campaign earned Columbia the coveted Marketing Innovation award at the 1997 Super Show, an international sporting goods and apparel trade show.
Mrs. Boyle has been a part of Columbia Sportswear since her father founded Columbia Hat Company in 1938. Throughout her teens, Mrs. Boyle helped with the family business. She then attended the University of Arizona, and earned a degree in sociology in 1947. While at college she met her future husband, Neal Boyle, whom she married in 1948. Shortly thereafter, the Boyles returned to Portland where Neal joined the Lamfrom family business.
When Mrs. Boyle’s father died in 1964, Neal took over the helm of the growing company. Just six years later, in 1970, at the age of 47, Neal Boyle suddenly died of a heart attack. He left three children, an expanding company leaning heavily on bank loans, and a wife whose previous experiences with finances was her monthly ritual of throwing all the bills across the living room and paying the one that flew the farthest. Mrs. Boyle soon discovered that running the family’s million-dollar sportswear company might be a little different.
Two years later the bankers decided it was time for Mrs. Boyle and her son Tim to sell the business. When she sat down with the perspective buyer and realized she would only make $1,400 off the sale, Mrs. Boyle told him, For that kind of money I’ll run the company into the ground myself. That was 34 years ago. Since Mrs. Boyle and Tim have been running the company, Columbia Sportswear Company has gone from near bankruptcy to become one of the world’s largest outerwear manufacturers and the leading seller of skiwear in the United States. Columbia’s sales have soared from $12.9 million in 1984 to $1.1 billion in 2004, and the company continues to forge ahead with product diversification and innovation.
Throughout her career, Mrs. Boyle has been a leader in the Portland community. The area’s deep respect for her was exemplified in 1997 when the prestigious University of Portland bestowed an honorary doctorate on the then 74-year-old grandmother of five. Mrs. Boyle has received many other honors recognizing her business savvy and philanthropic endeavors, including:
The SBA Outstanding Business Person Award for Oregon (1977);
The Oregon Chapter of Women’s Forum Woman of the Year Award (1987);
The March of Dimes White Rose Award (1988);
Northwest Master Entrepreneurs of the Year by Inc. Magazine, which she shares with son, Tim (1992);
A Top 50 Woman Business Owner by Working Woman Magazine (1993-96);
Oregon Entrepreneur of the Year by the Oregon Enterprise Forum, a group composed of Oregon business representatives (1994);
Astra Award for Outstanding Oregon Woman-owned Business (1996); and
The Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement (1998).
Inducted into the Sporting Goods Association Hall of Fame (2003).
Awarded the Jimmy Huega Can Do award (2003).
Inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame (2005).
Granted Portland, OR’s prestigious First Citizen Award (2005).
Mrs. Boyle’s affiliations have included the following:
American Heart Association/Oregon Chapter 2004-05 Spokesperson
Oregon Coin Committee (2003-2004)
Oregon Special Olympics Committee Member
Marylhurst College
Oregon Ballet Theatre
Oregon Enterprise Forum
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
Oregon Ski Industries Association
Oregon State Parks Commissioner
Oregon State University Business Advisory Board
Sapporo Sister City
St. Johns Environmental Impact
Boys and Girls Aid Society
Dept. of economic Development
Former International Women’s Forum Board Member | 