Robert S de Ropp - de Ropp's Years in Sonoma County

De Ropp's Years in Sonoma County

After working for the Lederle Laboratories for 10 years, de Ropp's attachment to the northeast U.S. waned and he felt a pull to the West Coast. In 1961 he purchased a small house on several acres, near Glen Ellen, California, where the climate was mild and soil could be worked to high fertilility. In time he became an independent writer and teacher — much concerned about humanity's growing environmental and spiritual crises — and set up a learning community on his land (near Santa Rosa) around 1967 The idea behind it was experiential learning at the levels of body, mind, and spirit.

De Ropp's family included the two children from his first marriage, and the children he had with his wife Betty. To support his family and finance their transition into the direct economy of living from the land and ocean, de Ropp worked until 1973 as a research scientist at the University of San Francisco. The family put down roots in their rural Sonoma-County locale, working at living simply. They grew fruits, vines, vegetables and wheat, as well as many ornamental plants. De Ropp fished in the ocean and Betty raised chickens.

De Ropp wrote most of his books during his Sonoma County years. Among his most influential books (concerning spiritual development) are: The Master Game and Warrior's Way: The Challenging Life Games. The first of these stands as his report on what he had learned from his teachers and from the writings of similar figures, as well as more main-stream psychologists, psychiatrists, and researchers into fields such as religion and the spiritual life. The second is in part a sequential biography, and was written near the end of his life; a significant dimension of its content is his very personal evaluation of the characters and contributions of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Madame Ouspensky, John G. Bennett (another direct disciple of Gurdjieff), Gerald Heard, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Stephen Gaskin, Alan Watts, and other figures serving as teachers of those engaged in spiritual quests. He is critical of those he views as false gurus or merely pompous, and attempts a fair-handed assessment of those he deems verbose but limited, whilst yet expressing genuine gratitude for those whose efforts he believes have enriched human life.

De Ropp died in his mid 70s whilst ocean-kayaking.