In the spring of 1964, an article in the Princeton Alumni News caught the attention of North Carolinian G. Watts Hill Jr. The article profiled Joshua L. Miner III and his effort to introduce Outward Bound to the United States. Already, two Outward Bound schools had opened in Colorado and Minnesota, and a third was nearing completion in Maine. Miner had established Outward Bound USA to oversee the American schools and was becoming an increasingly influential figure in education. In the article, he was quoted as saying, “Young people today need authentic adventure,” and “We simply want the opportunity, too often denied, to enable young people to discover what wonderful qualities they really possess.” Miner’s work and Kurt Hahn-inspired views of education intrigued Hill, who was chairman of the North Carolina Board of Higher Education and president of Home Security



Hill sent the article to his friend George H. Esser Jr., executive director of the North Carolina Fund. (Established in 1963 by Governor Terry Sanford and supported by private foundations, the North Carolina Fund financed new projects aimed at the alleviation of poverty.) The article circulated to Jack P. Mansfield, director of special projects for the fund. Mansfield asked his assistant, Marjorie Buckley (formerly Calloway), to research Outward Bound, and Buckley soon became the driving force for the foundation of North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS).



A North Carolina native and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Buckley had taught school in both her home state and England. With Mansfield’s support, Buckley made the establishment of the School her full-time job. In the summer of 1963, she visited the Minnesota Outward Bound School, where she attended a meeting of Outward Bound’s national board and witnessed the first courses open to women. She also met program director John Huie who encouraged her vision for a school in North Carolina.



In September of the same year, Buckley submitted a proposal to the executive board of the North Carolina Fund that argued, “We must continue to attempt to reach the drop out, the delinquent, the underachiever and the myriad other youth we designate as ‘problem’ with new and effective solutions to their needs.” The board rejected the proposal due to Outward Bound’s policy to serve people of all economic backgrounds, not just the poor.



Undeterred, Buckley continued to seek funding for the creation of a new Outward Bound school. With Mansfield’s encouragement, she enlisted the help of Hill to develop a board of directors. Hill wrote persuasive letters to his many influential contacts, as well as showed them the Colorado Outward Bound film As Tall as the Mountains. By the end of 1963, Hill and Buckley had assembled a group of trustees to serve on the board. They convened for the first time on December 29, 1963, to select a site for the first base camp. Despite earlier hopes to establish a seafaring school on the Outer Banks, the group chose the Linville Gorge Wilderness in the Pisgah National Forest.