What makes Santa Cruz so special…
[A little bit of it passed away recently. This is one of those people I’d heard about here and there; I’m sorry I missed his memorial service. -Thomas]
Dear friends-
You may (or may not) have known Bob DeBolt- a unique, dedicated, quiet and true Santa Cruz radical who contributed selflessly to the greater good, in his unusual, simple lifestyle (living on $65 a month) and as host of “The Politics of Social Reality” on KZSC for 17 years.
Bob De Bolt passed on, into the mystery of our collective futures… at 3 AM on Dec 31st, as a result of prostate cancer. The cancer moved quite rapidly. He called me on Dec 19th- realizing he needed to find a place in town as he was getting worse. He was able to be in a home with supportive, familiar friends (Cecile & Dennis Nelson. Dennis knew Bob for 30 years) during his final week, and died quite peacefully.
There will be a Memorial/Celebration of his life on Sunday January 25 at 1pm gathering at the North Remote Parking Lot (at the upper end of Heller Drive, above Kresge College) at UCSC. The public is invited (a simple contribution of food or drink is welcome, too). If rain is present, the gathering will be at the entrance to the McHenry Library at UCSC.
Grant Wilson 831 426-2292
grantaliscious@juno.com
Robert (Bob) D. DeBolt
1938-2003
Bob DeBolt passed quietly away on December 31, 2003 after a valiant struggle with prostate cancer. Born in 1938 in Battle Creek, Michigan, he had traveled the world before settling in Santa Cruz more than 30 years ago. Best known for The Politics of Social Reality, his long running radio show on KZSC on Thursday evenings 7-9 PM, Bob had a deep personal commitment to exposing injustice and building a more equitable and sustainable world. For 17 years he provided the Santa Cruz community with educational resources via his weekly radio program. Interviewing and playing public speeches of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Moore, Michael Parenti and many others. He gave tirelessly of himself, making his tapes and books available to anyone seeking to educate themselves.
A man of great integrity, Bob DeBolt lived lightly on the land. He was deeply offended by the rampant consumerism that he saw undermining the beauty, health and spirit of his local and global communities. So he used very little of his resources for himself, and gave away all he had to dozens of organizations that shared his values and his vision of a better world. During most of the past 30 years he chose consciously to live on as little as $65 a month and to reside in a simple tent in the forest. In his commitment to a determinedly simple life, he was an inspiration to people of all ages. He died as he had lived, with dignity and accompanied by those with whom he had shared various aspects of his life’s journey.
Memorial celebrations are pending. For more information contact: 831-325-9833.
———————————————————————
Peggy Law
Consultant to Non-profits and Grantmakers
Founding Director, International Media Project/National Radio Project
830 Los Trancos Road Portola Valley, CA 94028
Phone: 650-851-7256
mediaproject@igc.org
From- Dan Hirsch (who knew Bob for 20 years):
“I am in pain and can’t stay in the woods anymore,” he said over a borrowed phone on campus. “I’m obstructed and my bones hurt so much I can’t sleep in the tent any longer or carry water and food up to my campsite.” “Let’s get you down to Urgent Care, now.” I replied.
Urgent Care wouldn’t help, but County Health did, although the news was not good. He had an astronomical PSA level of 1800 (”normal” is less than 4). Advanced prostate cancer was the diagnosis, metastasized to bone throughout the body. He was 64, a few months away from being eligible for Medicare, with no health insurance.
Bob has lived amidst the redwoods in a pup tent, hardly bigger than he is, for the last 15 years. He is very proud of the fact that he spends only $80 per month on himself. That is because over those years he has saved and given all he had to dozens of groups working for social justice, peace, and the environment.
I should make clear he doesn’t view himself as poor; quite the contrary. Nor do I. He feels sorry for all those who sleep under a roof, not seeing the stars; whose senses are inundated with the noise of cars and blaring stereos and cannot hear the immense beauty of silence, or the true sounds of nature that are overwhelmed by the racket of our society. He lives admidst the cathedrals of the noble redwoods, and has them for friends.
When he was in too much pain to stay there any longer, for a few months while undergoing treatment he lived in rented rooms in town. As soon as he was feeling better, he fled again for the woods, unable to withstand the constant drone of television sets and motorcycle engines that the rest of us take for “civilization.”
If a judge ever got hold of him, one can only imagine the competency hearing: “You live in a tent, is that right? Yet you have enough money to live normally? And you give it all away to causes? You crazy–take him away, bailiff!”
Bob is strange, it must be acknowledged. And not just because he spends his time broadcasting Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn interviews on the local public radio station, or helping paint some beat-up used file cabinets Bridge the Gap recently acquired or years ago helping to convert a cabin’s rat cellar into a primitive office for us, or working in the movements to freeze or abolish nuclear weapons, rather than devoting his waking hours to acquiring and spending money. And not just because he works hard to consume as little as possible, so as to injure a little as possible this world choking from over-consumption. But within the limits of his nature - the real test for us all - he has given his full measure.
Bob will never be the subject of a fawning profile in an establishment newspaper; no government agency will ever ask him to serve on an advisory panel; you will never see him on television as a pundit. But when contrasted with people with arguably far greater internal resources who have nontheless been seduced in some measure into what Agee calls the “emasculation of acceptance,” into muting their criticism to fit what the establishment will bless, and been rewarded accordingly with visibility and some measure of power (or at least access), which is the “famous man” we should praise?
The lesson is not that each of us should go live in the woods and give away all our money to the cause of justice - few of us can or should take such a step.
Rather, it is to contribute to a better world in the deepest fashion of which we are uniquely capable. Dr. King gave a new definition of greatness in a speech a few months before he died: “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein”s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.”
Or as recorded a couple of millennia earlier” “He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins. Then he called his disciples and said tho them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
A strange man who lived in a tent has given away all he had and quietly been of service in numerous other ways. The world will little note nor long remember his passing. But let us now praise a famous man, who, within the limits of his nature, has given all that he had to give.
With best wishes for a more peaceful new year,
Daniel Hirsch
COMMITTEE TO BRIDGE THE GAP
1637 Butler Avenue, Suite 203
Los Angeles, California 90025
(310) 478-0829
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