Oliveann Hobbie

I grew up in Wyoming and California, but moved here from North Carolina, where I'd lived for 10 years. I came to Woods Hole because my husband was hired as an ecologist at George Woodwell's newly founded (1976) Ecosystems Center. I have taught all my life and just retired after 37 years at Falmouth Academy, where I was one of the first teachers hired. I've taught English, at all levels for years, and a little math, but my true love became the course I developed in non-Western Cultures: China, Japan, India, Russia.

Woods Hole and Falmouth (since I really live in Falmouth, north of the Oyster Pond lights) are extraordinary communities, partly because they are small New England villages with a long tradition of civic involvement, dedication to the needs of the whole community, and concern for keeping open space and natural beauty in spite of all the pressures for more development. Also, primarily because of the presence of several top-tier scientific institutions and because of the summer research tradition at MBL, the towns also offer an extraordinary wealth of interesting, multi-talented individuals.

For at least fifteen of my first summers here, we enjoyed the fine Sunday evening concerts in the Swope Center, organized by the late Phyllis Goldstein, and I played in several of them with fabulous instrumentalists who were also highly successful scientists. I used to think that I could never live anywhere but the Bay Area, but now I think that I could never live anywhere but right where I do, on Cape Cod.