Educator, Activist, Psychoanalyst, Philosopher, World Traveler and Philantropist Prynce Hopkins

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Educator, Activist, Psychoanalyst, Philosopher, World Traveler, Philanthropist. Prynce (born Prince, sometimes called Pryns) Hopkins was a closely watched figure in his day, with his exploits, travels and marriages reported by the international press. He launched influential schools, operated a swank hotel, was arrested for his writings about pacifism at the start of WWI, and wrote 19 books on a range of topics. Hopkins was born in Oakland, California, and was mostly raised by close friends of the family while his parents traveled. Hopkins, himself was soon traveling and never stopped. Over the years, Hopkins acquired a BS from Yale in engineering, an MA from Columbia in education (after short stays at MIT and Stanford to continue his engineering studies), and a PhD from the University of London in psychology. In 1911, Hopkins patented a form of helicopter (patent 1,001,849). His father, Charles, married Ruth Singer in 1868, heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. When she passed away, the stock passed first to Charles, then to Prynce upon his father's death. Prynce's mother was Mary Isabelle Booth, Charles' third wife. The family home in Santa Barbara, and which Prynce owned for many years, was the striking rock and plaster El Nido on upper Garden Street. After his father's death (1913), Prynce Hopkins began using his inheritance. That same year, Hopkins opened the Boyland school on the Riviera in Santa Barbara. The school was successful and required larger facilities, so Hopkins purchased 30 acres overlooking Oak Park in Santa Barbara. On it he built a large school, most noted for its one-acre map of the world where children could sail between the continents. The school was closed in 1918 after Hopkins and other school leader... ... middle of paper ... ...nched the magazine Science and Society in London and founded the Committee for the Psychological Study of International Problems. Hopkins ran unsuccessfully for a democratic seat in the California State Assembly in 1945 on a platform of "Human Needs First." At this time, he launched Freedom Magazine which remained in circulation only about a year. In 1948, he received some notoriety for his book Gone Up In Smoke, an early analysis of the dangers of smoking. His many books included An Instinctive Philosophy (1916), The Ethics of Murder (1917), Psychology of Social Movements (1938), Religious Beliefs and Practices in the Land of the Incas (1938), From Gods to Dictators (1944), A Westerner Looks East (1951), his autobiography, Both Hands Before the Fire (1961), and World Invisible (1963). Shortly before is death at the age of 85, he traveled once again around the world.

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