A tribute to George McRobie
Dr. George McRobie died in Charlottetown on Friday, July 2. The trajectory of his remarkable life took him from his birthplace of Moscow (1925), through his childhood in northern Scotland, his highly successful career in London and throughout the world, and finally here to Prince Edward Island, his half-time home since 2009. He was a man of great personal warmth and charm, much beloved by his many friends on the Island.
McRobie achieved fame through his close association with the British economist E.F. Schumacher and what could be called the “Small Is Beautiful” movement. They first met while Schumacher was Economic Advisor to the National Coal Board. For Schumacher, international attention came with the publication of Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, in 1973. This seminal work has been named by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the 100 most influential books published since World War II.
As well as being a fine theorist, Schumacher was also a remarkable man of action, and in McRobie he found a willing and capable colleague. Together they were founders of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in 1966, a UK-based NGO specializing in creating small-scale technology for developing countries. In 2005, the ITDG changed its name to Practical Action, and today it claims that “every year we help over one million people out of poverty.”
Schumacher and McRobie both served stints as President of the Soil Association, the main British organization promoting the use of organic agriculture.
For rather obvious reasons, the book Small Is Beautiful found a ready audience in Prince Edward Island. In 1975, McRobie first visited the Island, where he spoke to the Legislative Assembly at the invitation of Premier Alex Campbell.
With Schumacher’s death in 1977, the mantle of leadership fell on the shoulders of McRobie. In 1981 he published his book Small Is Possible – a “factual account about who is doing what, where, to put into practice the ideas expressed in E. F. Schumacher’s SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL.” McRobie’s purview encompassed the whole world; and in the chapter on Canada, he lauded the Island’s Institute of Man and Resources as one of “the two most striking and imaginative programmes” he had encountered in our country.
In later years, McRobie’s ties to the Island were strengthened when he was invited back on several occasions, at the invitation of the Institute of Island Studies, as an advisor on worker co-operatives and sustainable agriculture. In 1989, he was awarded an Honorary Degree by UPEI.
Dr. McRobie also has a close association with the Sir Andrew Macphail Foundation. This began in 1990 when he was tasked by the Institute of Island Studies to write a report outlining a vision for the Homestead in the demonstration and promotion of sustainable farming and forestry. Since 2011, the Homestead has hosted an annual George McRobie Lecture on the subject of sustainable agriculture – and George attended all five of these. The guest speaker at the inaugural McRobie Lecture was Patrick Holden, founder and head of The Sustainable Food Trust, and a friend of McRobie’s during the years they worked together at the Soil Association.
On a more personal note, George’s residency on the Island in recent years is entirely due to the sustainable devotion of his wife Susanne Manovill, friends since he visited here in the 1980s. In 2009 George was a widower, and Susanne invited him to return for a visit. Since then, Susanne and George have been inseparable.
Harry Baglole of Bonshaw is a former Director of UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies.
