permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

thanks Scott beautiful words 
> On Sep 25, 2016, at 4:07 PM, <scott@permaculture.org> 
> <scott@permaculture.org> wrote:
> 
> Farewell my dear old traveling companion, you will be sorely missed by the 
> "TROOPS".  Your boisterous laughter and outlandish stories (that I always 
> disbelieved and was always proven wrong in that disbelief), astonishing 
> facts dropped like bread crumbs leading an enraptured audience back to our 
> planetary home, and what an inspirational mentor for all of us!
> 
> I was a friend and traveled with Bill from 1984 until 1997; from Kathmandu 
> to the Former Soviet  Union (where Bill was inducted into the Russian 
> Academy, and was awarded the Vavilov metal, both singular honors that Bill 
> met with the comment "more honor no cash".)  We traveled from Indonesia to 
> southern Brazil where we gave the first permaculture class in that country 
> in protest of the "sham" U.N. Environmental Summit of 1991.  We covered 
> most of Latin America and the U.S.A. in a kind of barnstorming approach to 
> healing the Earth.  I can't remember how many august Statesmen, 
> bureaucrats, 1%ers, famous personalities that Bill insulted along our route 
> but he didn't miss many.  His reputation preceded him and soon the big 
> names no longer showed up but sent their lower assistants to take the heat 
> for their ridiculous responses to a world in disarray.
> 
> I can't imagine having a better teacher in this life, Bill was the ultimate 
> pedagogue.  He was so damed articulate, and never forgot a name and 
> function of anything.  I always worried when he walked into the lecture 
> hall when I was a teaching, knowing that, somehow, I would stumble over my 
> words, but he never once corrected me in a way that I felt shamed or 
> diminished.  He was a true mentor.  He was also sharp tongued and lashing 
> if the mood struck him.
> 
> For all the miles we traveled I am thankful to this legendary figure and 
> know he is holding forth on high bereft of his aura and his chakras as he 
> always claimed were missing at his birth.  I can imagine him leading the 
> heavenly choir in a chorus of "my father was the keeper of the edison 
> llight, played with mermaids every night ...."
> 
> Good bye old friend,
> 
> Scott Pittman    
> 
>> -------Original Message-------
>> From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
>> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Bruce Charles 'Bill' Mollison 1928-2016 
>> /Co-originator of Permaculture
>> Sent: Sep 25 '16 10:07
>> 
>> Thanks an unmeasurable amount for postin gthis news, Wes. Kudos to you.
>> Keep up your excellent work.
>> 
>> RIP Bill. That man did as much for mankind as anyone in the world ever. He
>> should have gotten the Nobel Prize (though he might have rejected it).
>> 
>> This statement really inspires me, it resonates with deep meaning:
>> "“We are true tme scouts finding places now for what will be needed then.”
>> We are indeed and should never lose sight of that.
>> 
>> A request to Scott Pittman: could you repost what you wrote previously
>> about Bill receiving a presigious award from the Russian Academy of
>> Sciences? That should be added to Graham's obit.
>> 
>> LL
>> 
>> On Sun, Sep 25, 2016 at 11:12 AM, Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture
>> Network <lakinroe@silcom.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Bruce Charles 'Bill' Mollison 1928-2016
>>> 
>>> Graham Bell
>>> Sunday, 25th September 2016
>>> Graham Bell's moving tribute to Bill Mollison, who died today, a true
>>> pioneer who gave up a promising academic career to challenge the status 
>>> quo
>>> and establish the global Permaculture movement.
>>> 
>>> Bruce Charles 'Bill' Mollison (born 1928 in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia
>>> and died today, 24 September 2016 in Sisters Beach, Tasmania).
>>> 
>>> A few people are born who are world class heroes to those who know them
>>> and unkown to the great majority, until one day their inescapable 
>>> influence
>>> floats to the surface and is generally recognised for the cream it is. In
>>> hindsight such leaders go on to become household names.
>>> 
>>> Such a man was Bill Mollison: backwoodsman, academic, storyteller, lady’s
>>> man and to many just ‘Uncle Bill’, but doing all these things par
>>> excellence. In consequence he has left a worldwide movement of remarkable
>>> resilience. He has left much useful information and not a few words of
>>> guidance and encouragement for those who will miss him most.
>>> 
>>> Growing up in Stanley, Tasmania, he left school at fifteen to help run the
>>> family bakery and before 26 went through the occupations of shark 
>>> fisherman
>>> and seaman (bringing vessels from post-war disposals to southern ports),
>>> forester, mill-worker, trapper, snarer, tractor driver and naturalist.
>>> 
>>> His lack of formal education gave him many learning opportunities in how
>>> the real world works.
>>> 
>>> Bill joined the CSIRO (Wildlife Survey Section) in 1954 and gained
>>> extensive research knowledge. His time in the Tasmanian rainforests gave
>>> him the founding structure for what became his life’s passion -
>>> Permaculture. The idea that we could consciously design sustainable 
>>> systems
>>> which enabled human beings to live within their means and for all wild 
>>> life
>>> to flourish with us.
>>> 
>>> A spell at the Tasmanian Museum in curatorial duties, a return to field
>>> work with the Inland Fisheries Commission took him back to college in 1966
>>> living on his wits running cattle, security bouncing at dances, shark
>>> fishing, and teaching part-time at an exclusive girls' school. Upon
>>> receiving his degree in bio-geography, he was appointed to the University
>>> of Tasmania where he later developed the unit of Environmental Psychology.
>>> During his university period (which lasted for 10 years), Bill
>>> independently researched and published a three-volume treatise on the
>>> history and genealogies of the descendants of the Tasmanian aborigines.
>>> 
>>> In 1974, with David Holmgren, Bill developed the beginning of the
>>> permaculture concept, leading to the publication of Permaculture One. He
>>> became fixated on proving and promulgating what he saw as a world renewing
>>> concept. Leaving the University in 1978, abandoning a secure academic
>>> tenure at the age of fifty (an unheard of move) Bill devoted all his
>>> energies to furthering the system of permaculture and spreading the idea
>>> and principles worldwide. He has taught thousands of students, and has
>>> contributed many articles, curricula, reports, and recommendations for 
>>> farm
>>> projects, urban clusters and local government bodies.
>>> 
>>> In 1981, Bill Mollison received the Right Livelihood Award (sometimes
>>> called the "Alternative Nobel Prize") for his work in environmental 
>>> design.
>>> In recent years, he has established a 'Trust in Aid' fund to enable
>>> permaculture teachers to reach groups in need, particularly in the poorer
>>> parts of the world, with the aim of leaving a core of teachers locally to
>>> continue appropriate educational work.
>>> 
>>> We are helped in remembering Bill by his 1996 autobiography Travels in
>>> Dreams. Typically he laughs at himself: “This book is a work of fiction:
>>> most if not all of it is lies. Even the lies are imprecise reports of old
>>> lies overheard.” He wasn’t universally liked. One ason being he was
>>> committed to disrupt the status quo of misguided unfeeling management.
>>> “First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.”
>>> He was eloquent about the need for peaceful ‘warriors’ as he called them 
>>> to
>>> challenge the stupidity of ill-governance on a global scale. His own fears
>>> about being ineffectual were misguided: “Nobody takes any notice of me and
>>> even my friends continually criticise me.” In reality he engendered a
>>> massive global respect which will endure and grow as others develop his
>>> foundation thinking.
>>> 
>>> The pinnacle of his career to his students was the publication in 1988 of
>>> The Permaculture Designers Manual, honoured to this day by devotees as 
>>> 'The
>>> Bible of Permaculture'. If devotees suggests falsely some religious
>>> connotation it’s really that Bill pioneered a deep respect for the planet
>>> and for more sensible approaches for how we could live on it: “We are true
>>> time scouts finding places now for what will be needed then.”
>>> 
>>> Bill asked: “Are we the public or the private person?” The truth of the
>>> matter is that for all seasons we are both. Perceived as challenging, a
>>> huge harvester of great ideas from around the world (and not always
>>> crediting their sources) Bill was also a sensitive man, eloquent 
>>> raconteur,
>>> poet and appreciative of the poetry of others. He knew how to provoke
>>> others to action, but also when to withdraw and let others carry on the
>>> work. He paraphrased Lao Tzu: “True change is to so change things that it
>>> seems natural to everybody but no-one knows who thought of it.” And: “Our
>>> best will not be our children’s best.”
>>> 
>>> Though often outwardly gruff and challenging there was real heart to
>>> everything he did.
>>> 
>>> Bill Mollison founded the first and original Permaculture Institute, which
>>> was established in 1979 to teach the practical design of sustainable soil,
>>> water, plant, and legal and economic systems to students worldwide. Bill’s
>>> legacy is that hundreds of thousands of past students have created a
>>> world-wide network to take his concept forward. This is a world in which 
>>> we
>>> are acutely aware of our environment, its capacity and its limitations, 
>>> and
>>> we design systems to meet human needs which respect that.
>>> 
>>> Bill spent his final years in Sisters Beach, Tasmania. The final words
>>> must go to him in true classical tone:
>>> 
>>> “If you hear that I am dead tell them they lie.“
>>> 
>>> Graham Bell is the author of The Permacultiure Way and The Permaculture
>>> Garden <http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/books/pp/graham-bell.html> and
>>> has been teaching permaculture internationally for over two and a half
>>> decades. He has one of the oldest forest gardens in the Borders of 
>>> Scotland.
>>> 
>>> Cross-posted from grahambell.org <http://grahambell.org/wp-
>>> content/uploads/2016/09/Bill-Mollison-Obituary-25.9.16.pdf> with our
>>> thanks.
>>> 
>>> Help spread the permaculture word…
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> https://www.permaculture.co.uk/news/14748130637497/bruce-
>>> charles-bill-mollison-1928-2016 <https://www.permaculture.co.
>>> uk/news/14748130637497/bruce-charles-bill-mollison-1928-2016>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>   <https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/vivienne-
>>> westwoods-10-steps-climate-revolution>
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Lawrence F. London, Jr.
>> lfljvenaura@gmail.com
>> https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared
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