2008 Horace Mann Award Recipient - Larry Hobbs

Systems, People and Sustainability are his Focus

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Jets fly overhead, hammers shape new high-end houses just down the road and traffic noise encroaches on the humble Bainbridge Island habitat Larry Hobbs calls home. Perched over a ravine in the woods, his modest yurt is a lesson in simplicity in an increasingly complex world.  

"It's very hard in our culture to live sustainably," says Hobbs. It's not just his frown that tells you he is sincere. Five years ago, Hobbs co-authored a scholarly journal article entitled "Is Humanity Sustainable?" in which he suggests enormous challenges lie ahead if humanity is to achieve sustainability. In fact, he concedes, humanity might not be sustainable.

"Our research shows that the human population is a thousand times what it needs to be to be sustainable," he says.

The 2008 alumni recipient of Antioch Seattle's Horace Mann Award dedicates himself to helping others understand relationships between the natural world and the human world. Since the 1970s, it's estimated he has reached more than 15,000 adult learners in his efforts to persuade for more responsible and responsive interactions within living systems. He lectures, teaches, leads groups and tackles wildlife research projects worldwide in pursuit of a systemic approach to sustainable life on the planet.

"I don't know how to make a lot of money, but I love to travel, to learn and to talk with people deeply about our relationship with this precious planet," he says.

"Systems are as simple as 'the thigh bone's connected to the knee bone.' We're all interconnected, but it's just not the way we live our lives today."

Systems – how they work, how to change them when necessary and what makes them sustainable – are what interest Hobbs most.

Early on, he became a whale biologist and attached radio transmitters and tracked just about anything that swam – whales, manatees, otters and the like. He hasn't missed a gray whale migration in 34 years. (When others may have been glued to the Super Bowl on their big-screen TVs in early February, Hobbs, who doesn't own a television, was in Baja, Calif., leading expeditions on the Sea of Cortes among the great whales.)

"I've been extremely blessed to be able to pet 40-ton, live grey whales," he says.

Hobbs began studying marine mammals 24/7. "I spent time in Hawaii with spinner dolphins learning how they school, how they communicate, what they eat and, generally, how they live. I'd spend my days diving with them and my nights out at sea with them."

Later, he worked with NASA and developed satellite transmitters that he placed on gray whales.

He also worked with polar bears.  "Polar bears are a lot easier to catch than whales when you're trying to put transmitters on them," says Hobbs. "I was fascinated by all we could learn from these animals."

If you're wondering how polar bears and whales tie into systems theory, Hobbs explains there are buddy systems, ecosystems, family systems and much more.

"Systems are as simple as 'the thigh bone's connected to the knee bone.' We're all interconnected, but it's just not the way we live our lives today," he notes.

It was his fascination with family systems that brought Hobbs to Antioch to study for a master's degree in psychology. He says learning at traditional universities had been very disempowering, not very challenging and actually quite boring.

"Designing my own program at Antioch brought back joy, beauty and challenge to learning for me," he says.

After he completed his M.A. in 1984, he spent time as a family therapist. Schizophrenia and drug and alcohol addiction were among his specializations.

For Hobbs, there was a sense of peace and ease in the woods that never factored into city life, though.

"We lose a lot by not honoring and being in the natural world. I think reconnecting with the natural world holds one of the answers to our ecological crisis," he says.

Still, Hobbs spent 20 years as adjunct faculty in the B.A. completion program at Antioch Seattle, where he taught science as a field course. His goal was to make science palatable to those who preferred to sidestep it.

"Science is a way of seeing," he says. "I showed students how to use the scientific method so they could be comfortable with it. For me, the real joy in teaching is the learning process. It never stops."

Not anytime soon, anyway. Hobbs leads wilderness Vision Quests where he guides people of all ages to a deeper connection with the Earth. He initiated and developed a traditional rites of passage program for the Washington State 4-H Challenge Program and continues to lead teen groups and train adult leaders. He says traditional rites of passage have virtually disappeared in mainstream America, yet they do much to prepare youth for adult responsibility and leadership roles. He also continues to lead ecotours worldwide, study and write about sustainability, and research river dolphins in Southeast Asia.

In nominating Larry Hobbs for the Horace Mann Award, Randie Clark (B.A. 1999, M.A.  Psychology 2002) notes, "His life's work exemplifies the spirit of Antioch and demonstrates a deeply caring ethic that challenges one to rise above self-imposed limitations and become a contributing member of our world community."

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