LLOYD A. ANDERSON

1902-2000

Lloyd A. Anderson, an American Alpine Club member since 1942 and the founder of Recreational Equipment Inc., died September 13 at the age of 98. Although he climbed more than 400 peaks in this lifetime, making many first ascents, it was his approach to buying that made him famous. When, in the late 1930s, Anderson went shopping for an ice axe, he found them hard to get and expensive. So he imported better, cheaper axes from Austria. Soon he was distributing climbing gear to various small stores before heading to his day job as an engineer for the Seattle Transit System. Within a short period, Lloyd was buying high-quality outdoor gear at reasonable prices for hundreds of friends and acquaintances. REI, the country’s biggest outdoor-related cooperative, was formed. Anderson, when asked why a co-op, not a corporation, said, “I never thought a man should make money off his friends.”

Cameron M. Burns