Stephen Gaskin
| Stephen Gaskin | |
|---|---|
Stephen Gaskin at the Nambassa 5 day Music & Alternatives festival, New Zealand, 1981. Photographer: Michael Bennetts.
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| Born |
February 16, 1935 Denver, Colorado |
| Died | July 1, 2014 (aged 79) Summertown, Tennessee |
| Residence | Summertown, Tennessee |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | U.S. |
| Education | San Francisco State College, B.A., M.A. |
| Occupation | Activist, speaker, writer |
| Organization | The Farm, Plenty International |
| Spouse(s) | Carol Groves (1957-1959) Carol Ladas (1961-1964) Margaret Nofziger (1967-1975) Ina May Middleton (1976-2014) |
Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 – July 1, 2014) was an American counterculture Hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual intentional community in Summertown, Tennessee. He was a Green Party presidential primary candidate in 2000 on a platform which included campaign finance reform, universal health care, and decriminalization of marijuana. He was the author of over a dozen books, political activist, a philanthropic organizer and a self-proclaimed professional Hippie.
Gaskin was born in Denver, Colorado and served in the US Marine Corps from 1952 to 1955. In the 1960s, he moved to San Francisco and taught English, creative writing, and general semantics at San Francisco State College, where he was a student of S. I. Hayakawa.
Stephen Gaskin's writing class evolved into an open discussion group known as Monday Night Class, which involved up to 1500 students. The Monday Night Class was held in "The Family Dog", an auditorium on the Great Highway on the land side of Ocean Beach on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in the Outer Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco. Stephen Gaskin spoke about his experiences with psychedelic drugs and paranormal experiences, as well as lecturing on the importance of ecological awareness. This popular weekly gathering was attended by hippies from all over the San Francisco Bay Area during the years 1969 and 1970. Stephen became known as San Francisco's acid guru.
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