The Resume

(March 6, 1924-November 3, 2019)
Born in Augsburg, Germany
Birth name was Gertrude Lamfrom
CEO (1970-88) and Chair (1970-2019) of Columbia Sportswear
Appeared in company ads as ‘One Tough Mother’

Why she might be annoying:

She admitted that when she took over Columbia after her husband’s death, ‘Of course I wasn’t qualified.’
The first year that she ran the company, sales dropped in half.
Son Tim joked that to keep using her in ads after she passed away, ‘We’ll probably have her stuffed.’

Why she might not be annoying:

When she was thirteen, her family fled Nazi Germany for America.
She eventually turned the company’s fortunes around, with sales growing to over $18 million a year by the time she retired as CEO.
Columbia was the first company to sell Gore-Tex parkas (1975).
When a burglar held her at gunpoint in her home, she was able to trigger a silent alarm to summon the police (2010).
She was the first woman inducted into the National Sporting Goods Hall of Fame.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 73]
• Catholics who are Partially Jewish
• I am a Jew who Converted to Christianity
• I Attended University of Arizona
• I Converted to Catholicism
• I Died in 2019 (Ranked: 95)
• Look at My Book Cover
• Profiles 45751-46000 (Ranked: 45860)

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying