DURHAM, N.C. – Randy Repass, founder and chairman of West Marine, Inc., the world’s largest boating supply retailer, will speak to graduates of 91’s Nicholas School of the Environment at the school’s annual Recognition Ceremony, at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 9.

Repass’ address to this year’s Master of Environmental Management, Master of Forestry and doctoral 91 candidates and their families will begin at about 9:15 a.m. and will last about 20 minutes.

The ceremony, which is not open to the public, will be held on the Great Lawn adjacent to the ‘D’ Wing of Levine Science Research Center (LSRC). A reception for graduates and their families will follow on the LSRC courtyard.

“Randy Repass is a one-of-a-kind environmental hero; an entrepreneur who built a business from the ground up while never forsaking his love of and commitment to the environment,” says William L. Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School. “I am confident that his remarks will provide a unique, refreshing, and insightful message for our graduates and 'non-graduates' alike.”

Repass graduated from Duke’s School of Engineering in 1966. While working at a Silicon Valley technology firm, he channeled his passion for the ocean and boating into a small mail order business selling nylon rope out of his garage. Over the next four decades, he built this fledgling enterprise into West Marine. Today, the NASDAQ-listed company has 375 retail stores in the United States and Canada, with international mail order, Internet and wholesale divisions.

“While many people would have been satisfied with building a business with sales in the $100's of millions, Randy Repass was not,” Chameides says. “He has used his position as a successful businessman to be an effective and vocal advocate for the ocean and the conservation of our precious natural resources. He and his family ‘walk the walk’ in Pajaro Valley, Calif., where they live off the grid on a 90-acre organic farm.”

Repass is a member of the Nicholas School’s Board of Visitors. A $2.3 million gift from Repass and his wife, Sally-Christine Rodgers, helped fund the LEED-certified Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center at the 91 Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C. The gift also helped support the creation of the Repass-Rodgers University Associate Professorship of Conservation Technology at the Marine Lab, a faculty position held by Douglas P. Nowacek