On Sunday, Donald Fisher, who co-founded Gap Inc with his wife Doris forty years ago, passed away at 81, after fighting a long battle with cancer.

Fisher started his company as a little denim store in San Francisco and now it operates over 3,100 stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan and Ireland. The company has been credited with inventing the specialty retail category.

It was in 1969 that the Fishers launched their first store in San Francisco and called it 'Gap', referring to the generational differences between baby boomers and their parents.

Gap chiefly sold Levi's jeans, tapes and records when it first opened, after which it flourished in 1970s as consumers snapped up its denim.

Millard Drexler was hired as president of Gap in 1983. Drexler renovated successfully the retailer's image from a seller of Levi's and other denim brands to one of the most popular private-label apparel brands in U. S. history.

However, aggressive expansion plans, rising competition and fashion mis-steps hurt the retailer in the past decade. With the aim of overhauling the operations, Gap has been working in recent years with many popular brands, which now include Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta.

A major denim campaign was recently launched by Gap. The campaign included jeans with better fits and higher-end styling, in the hope of bringing back the once-loyal customers who graduated to more fashionable rivals.

Fisher resigned as Gap's chief executive officer in 1995; and in 2004, he stepped down as the chairman of the board. However, he continued to serve as Chairman Emeritus until his death.

"Fisher also served on the Boards of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This past week the museum announced plans to permanently house the Fisher Collection, one of the world's leading private collections of contemporary art, upon completion of its expansion," said Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Fisher also supported such areas as education and the environment.