Coverage: L.L. Bean’s Leon Gorman remembered

For only the third time in its history, L.L. Bean voluntarily closed its flagship stores in Freeport, Maine, to hold a memorial service for its former president, Leon Gorman.

Gorman, 80, passed away earlier this month after months of battling cancer. He is credited with turning his grandfather’s company into the household name it is today.

Tom Bell of the Portland Press Herald summarized the service:

More than 500 people attended a memorial service Sunday for former L.L. Bean President Leon A. Gorman, who was remembered as a quiet but tenacious man who tackled everything he did with intensity, whether climbing a mountain in the Himalayas or grilling eggs for 400 people at a Portland soup kitchen.

During the service at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center, speakers focused on Gorman’s efforts to preserve land for conservation, his volunteer work at Preble Street, a Portland agency that helps the poor, and his legacy at L.L. Bean, which experienced explosive growth during his 34 years as president and 12 years as chairman of the board. Gorman became president of the Freeport outdoors and apparel company in 1967 after the death of his grandfather, company founder Leon Leonwood Bean, and was chairman emeritus when he died of cancer on Sept. 3. He was 80.

On Sunday, Gorman’s body lay in a flower-draped casket at the front of the stage during the non-religious memorial. To the left was a painting of Gorman, wearing a hunting jacket and sitting on a log with his two dogs, English springer spaniels.

The Associated Press described Gorman’s time running his grandfather’s company:

Mark Swann, executive director of the Preble Street Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps the homeless, said Gorman had volunteered at its Portland soup kitchen every Wednesday morning for 12 years. He said the resource center’s annual volunteer of the year award will be named the Leon Gorman Volunteer Service Award in his honor.

Swann said Gorman was a very powerful person who dedicated his time and effort to helping those with the least power who were impoverished.

“What a lesson from Leon for all of us,” Swann said.

Gorman, the grandson of founder Leon Leonwood Bean, led the Maine-based company as CEO or chairman for 46 years before retiring as chairman of the board in 2013. He died earlier this month of cancer. He was 80.

He transformed the company after his grandfather’s death in 1967 from a mail-order company with $5 million in annual sales and 100 employees into an international multi-channel retailer with sales topping $1.5 billion and more than 5,000 workers.

He also was a philanthropist and conservationist, giving to a variety of causes and working to ensure land is protected for future generations.

The fact that the Freeport stores closed underscores his importance to the company and the state.

L.L. Bean has voluntarily closed its stores only twice before, following the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and L.L. Bean himself.

Since 1951, the Freeport stores have been open 24/7 year-round, a tradition that dates to the days when fishermen and hunters roused L.L. Bean at all hours from his home above the store when they needed supplies.

Rachel Gillett of Business Insider delved deeper into the life Gorman led:

All the while, Gorman never lost sight of the company’s core value in customer satisfaction, and L.L. Bean continues to offer a 100% satisfaction lifetime guarantee on all its products, which the company provided from the very start.

An avid outdoorsman like his grandfather, Gorman frequently tested his company’s products on outdoor trips and enjoyed hiking the Camden Hills in midcoast Maine, biking around Acadia National Park, and fly fishing in northern Maine.

Gorman is also well-known for his volunteer and philanthropic efforts, especially in the conservation community and was involved with numerous organizations like the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and Land for Maine’s Future. He also volunteered with the Preble Street Resource Center’s soup kith cen in Portland, Maine, every Wednesday morning for 12 years..

The center’s executive director, Mark Swann, spoke at Gorman’s memorial service Sunday and said Gorman, though the most powerful private person in Maine, dedicated himself to helping the poorest people with the least power.

“What a lesson from Leon for all of us,” he said, according to the Press Herald.

“In the end, that may be Leon’s greatest legacy, that he treats everyone, in business and in life, as a human being,” former Maine Gov. John McKernan said when Gorman was honored in 2010 by Bowdoin College. “The power and importance of that belief — of doing well by doing good — has proved its value over and over again.”