Talking with One Tough Mother (BusinessWeek Online)

BusinessWeek Online - Gertrude Boyle, affectionately known as "Gert," is not your typical entrepreneur -- let alone company chairman. She had no interest in business and was rather content raising her three children while her husband ran the family business -- a small outdoor-clothing concern for hunters, skiers, and fishermen called Columbia Sportswear , founded by her father in 1938. But her husband, Neil Boyle, died suddenly of a heart attack in 1970, leaving his wife and three children a growing enterprise saddled with debt.

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