Jake Burton Carpenter

Jake Burton Carpenter, whose once-modest plan to make 50 snowboards a day turned into something far bigger — a global business that helped drive snowboarding into a popular Olympic sport — died on Wednesday November 20 2019 in a hospital in Burlington, Vt. He was 65. Carpenter is Burton’s founder, chairman and, along with Donna Carpenter, his wife of nearly 33 years, its co-owner. She has had several leading roles with Burton over the years, currently as president, and became chief executive on February 1 2016. Carpenter — most know him as Jake Burton — is sort of a godfather of snowboarding and the youth movement toward action sports. Inspired in the 1970s by a sporting goods item called the Snurfer, a single ski with a rope attached to the tip, Carpenter spent years tinkering with snowboard shapes, materials and bindings, building an equipment and clothing company in Vermont that still leads the industry. Doctors diagnosed Miller Fisher syndrome, a type of Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which a body’s immune system attacks its nerves. The cause is not known, but it may be triggered by recent surgeries or infections. He soon was writing notes, blindly at first, mostly to Donna; their three sons, George, Taylor and Timi; an assortment of guests; and the caregivers who paraded through his room. The effects of Miller Fisher syndrome slowly faded after a couple of months. Carpenter had a tracheotomy in mid-April and was moved to the rehabilitation center in Boston on April 22 2015, still mostly paralyzed and being fed through a tube. (The feeding tube was removed on Aug. 19 2015.) By June 15 2015 , he was home for good, with his wife serving as his primary nurse. For six months since, he has been rebuilding his strength, finding his balance, both literally and figuratively. Mr. Carpenter was born on April 29, 1954, in Manhattan. His father, Edward, was an investment banker, and his mother, Katherine (Eaton) Carpenter, was a homemaker. About the same time he was Snurfing, Jake was expelled from the private Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts. After one year at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he left for New York University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. While working for an investment firm in Manhattan, he crafted his first snowboard prototype in his apartment using a saber saw and wood. In addition to his wife Donna, Mr. Carpenter is survived by his sons, George, Taylor and Timi; his sisters, Katherine McCallum and Carolyn Wright; his stepbrothers, Richard and Stephen Carpenter; his stepsisters, Posie Carpenter and Margaret Carpenter Jones; and his stepmother, Margaret (Owen) Carpenter. His brother, George, died in combat in Vietnam.