San Francisco  - Don Fisher, the fashion retail visionary who founded Gap 40 years ago and built it into a worldwide chain, has died aged 81 from cancer, the company announced Monday.

Fisher died Sunday and is survived by his wife, two brothers, three sons and 10 grandchildren. Forbes magazine estimated his fortune last year at 1.3 billion dollars.

Fisher founded the company with his wife in San Francisco in 1969, selling Levi's jeans, records and tapes. They called it the Gap to reflect the generation gap between the baby boomers and their parents. The company now has more than 3,000 stores, including the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains, in 25 countries. A major factor in the store's success was its policy of stocking a full range of sizes and the innovative way that jeans were displayed in tidy wall cubicles according to size rather that heaped on tables as was customary at the time.

A noted philanthropist and art collector, Fisher amassed one of the world's foremost private collections of contemporary art, which is expected to go on permanent display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger paid tribute to Fisher. "He treated people with respect and worked to make a significant impact in his community, making it a better place for people to live, grow and prosper," Schwarzenegger said.  dpa