Ma Boyle, the seemingly
cantankerous taskmistress of Columbia Sportswear, turned her
late husband's sagging company into a multimillion-dollar
powerhouse. Underneath that Titanium jacket, 75-year-old Gert
Boyle is sweet and wry and has no intention of retiring--ever.
Willamette Week: What does it feel like to shoot
a Columbia ad?
Gert Boyle: Oh, that's work! Have you ever done one of
these things? It takes five, six hours. 'Now stand right
there and hold it.' What the hell? I'm an old lady. We just
did an ad down on the Wilson River, and they say, 'Hey Gert,
can you stand on that rock and just hold it there?' And
I say, 'Hell no, I can't do that.' I'll sit on the rock,
but I'm not going to stand on the rock for 20 minutes with
the water rushing around me.
So you're sort of portrayed as a...
Mean old lady. That's right. But I'm not a mean old lady.
I'm a wonderful grandmother who is just the most charming
person you'd ever want to meet.
How did Portland's fleece fetish come about?
Well, if it gets dirty, you can wash it and it comes out
and looks the same as it did, and it's warm. It's like with
everything else--it's the 'in' thing to wear.
Are you much of an outdoor person?
Well, you know, I'm 75. You get to huffing and puffing
when you get past the second rung on a ladder. But I exercise.
I do water aerobics three times a week, and I walk.
What keeps you so busy?
First of all, I hate to cook, and so someone always invites
me out for dinner. See, that takes care of the evening.
And three times a week I exercise at night. Then we are
so busy. We have customers in. We have to take customers
out for dinner. And we have meetings.
What do you like so much about Portland?
The older I get, the more I appreciate it. It's clean and
it's green, and it's--you know, we do have a bit of rain,
but then you wouldn't buy a raincoat if it didn't rain,
would you? So that's the business I'm in. I make a bit of
money doing that.
What is the most adventurous thing you've ever done?
Oh, my. Well, after my husband died, it was going into
this business. I don't know. I think the most adventurous
thing I do is get up in the morning and go, 'Oh, my God,
what's going to happen today?' Everything to me is an adventure.
I knew very little and I still know very little about some
of this business here, but you gotta learn something new
every day--and that's an adventure.
Is retirement in your future at all?
Oh, good heavens, no. I'd have to do housework.
You serve as a really good role model for women. Who
are some of your role models?
Someone like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She had a hell
of a lot of problems. And she was big enough to not publish
it daily. She was able to cope with a lot of adversities
and just rise above it all, and I think that's very commendable.
And Antoinette Hatfield, who happens to be a good friend
of mine. When you're a senator's wife, you get to do a lot
of things, yet she went to work.
Did you work much before?
Oh no, never. I saw a great deal of the back ends of my
children.
Did you want a career when you were younger?
No. In the '40s and '50s it wasn't all that necessary for
families to have two incomes. Most of the women that I knew
all had kids, and we all had coffee together and bitched
about how much the dust settled on our furniture.
Do you subscribe to any magazines?
I've got stacks of them here--Playboy and... No.
We advertise in Playboy, so they send it to me. And
there's nothing in there I haven't seen before.
Do you have a life motto?
Yes. "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published September 22,
1999
|
