Outward Bound USA - History

History

See also: Outward Bound History

In 1961, Joshua L. Miner, the first president of Outward Bound USA (OBUSA) and the man responsible for bringing the innovative ideas of Kurt Hahn to the United States, inspired US legislation approving a training and development model to prepare Peace Corps volunteers in Puerto Rico. This first camp, and then the more famous Colorado school, became OBUSA's first presence in the USA.

A history of the first 20 years of OBUSA is provided by Miner and Boldt (1981). NOLS founder Paul Petzoldt was an early OBUSA instructor. The development of OBUSA lead to several other off-shoot programs, including Project Adventure.

Following a decline in enrollments and financial difficulties during the 1990s, in May 2005 four legacy Outward Bound Schools were combined into a new division of Outward Bound called Outward Bound Wilderness (Outward Bound Wilderness.) The four legacy schools known as 1) Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, 2) Outward Bound West, and 3) Voyageur Outward Bound School are now operated under one central office, but still offer the same programs and expeditions.

There are five Outward Bound Schools and Centers: NCOBS (North Carolina Outward Bound School), POBC (Philadelphia), BOBC (Baltimore), TIOBC (Thompson Island, Boston) and NYCOBC (New York City). From their respective beginnings, each of the schools and centers operated individually and were audited by OBUSA for safety and international policy standards. During 2005, OBUSA unified several of these schools into one larger OBUSA, sharing all resources alike.

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