Since the mid-1930’s Mildred J. Loomis and others have committed their lives to the Ralph Borsodi and Henry George movements, homesteading, and community living. Much has expanded since then to encompose a more wholesome life, free of pollution, with a better communial relationship with our mother earth. What we hope to accomplish in this on-line resource is to collect proses, poetry, articles, art and more. Some may have been previously printed or included in the “Green Revolution;” others are current that reflect the movement of today.

If you have anything you wish to have considered to be added to the collection, please forward by email to: solgreenrev@gmail.com

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MILDRED JENSEN LOOMIS BY TRUE RITCHEY

Mildred Jensen Loomis, Decentralist, writer, editor and co-founder along with Dr. Ralph Borsodi of the School of Living, over 50 years ago. Born January 5, 1900 on a farm near Blair, Nebraska, of Danish/English ancestry. Father, Nels Marten Jensen; mother, Anna Truhlsen Jensen. Mildred had three brothers and two sisters. Surviving are one brother, Dr. Marshall N. Jensen of Longwood, Florida; and her sister, Myrtle Ross of Cory, Colorado; three nieces and four nephews. Deceased are brothers Harold and Alton, and sister Enid Wardell.

Mildred Loomis served as Director of School of Living Centers at Lane’s End near Dayton, Ohio from 1943 to 1968; at Heathcote, MD from 1968 to 1972; at Sonnewald Homestead near Spring Grove, PA from 1972 to 1975; and at Deep Run near York, PA from 1975 – 1985. Throughout this period, she wrote various self-reliance and decentralist topics, and at times, edited the School of Living journal, known variously as The Interpreter; Balanced Living; A Way Out; and The Green Revolution. As a speaker at many conferences and workshops, she gained wide acclaim in the U.S. and abroad.

Besides the School of Living publications, her writings appeared in numerous avant-garde periodicals, including Free America; Christian Century; Let’s Live; The Messenger; The Anvil; Resurgence; Mother Earth News; and The Whole Earth Review. Her published books include Alternative Americas and Go Ahead and Live. The former is an exposition and chronicle of the decentralist movement, while the latter addresses approaches to healthful, self-reliant ways of living. Two others, Ralph Borsodi: Reshaping Modern Culture and Bordodi As I Knew Him, are in preparation. Loomis was in the process of writing another book about women in the Henry George movement at the time of her stroke on October 1, 1984.

Loomis’ educational background included a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska in 1924, followed by a Master of Science degree in Education and Religion from Columbia University and Union Seminary in 1932. She taught at Quaker summer work camps and at the Quaker Center in Pendel Hill. She assisted Ralph Borsodi at the School of Living in Suffren, NY in 1939 and 1940.

In 1940, she married John Loomis. Together, they established Lane’s End Homestead at Brookville, Ohio where they lived in a relatively self-reliant lifestyle until John’s death in 1968. Throughout this period, Loomis tutored and instructed people in homesteading, organic gardening, nutrition, healthful living, and decentralist economics.

Throughout her long life, Mildred Loomis has inspired countless people, not merely by what she said and wrote, but how she lived her life, practicing healthful decentralist principles daily and joyfully.

(additional: Mildred is child of Nels Marten and Anna (Truhlsen) Jensen. Nels was Soren Jensen’s 5th child.)