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An advertising executive since 1965, Gordon began grassroots men's work around single fathering issues in 1976. In 1979, he established The Fathers' Network as a referral for fathers who want to work with the issues, problems and joys of parenting. In 1982, he created The National Men's Resource Center, a reference of men's organizations, research, books, publications, cultural programs and films on men's issues with the goal to end men's isolation. In 1983, he was a co-planner of the 2nd Women & Men Together gathering in Santa Cruz, CA. In 1984, he developed Tantrum Yoga® movement and breath work system devoid of any violence such as pillow pounding and founded Heartworks to offer mind & body consulting based on this concept. In 1985, he published the first quarterly issue of Menstuff®, The National Men's Resource and continued as publisher until it became a website in August, 1996. (www.menstuff.org) Also in 1985, he created a workshop for women only and men only titled Healing the Father Wound® and in 1986 created the first Rites-of-Passage for Fathers & Teenage Daughters with his daughter, Natalie. He has also presented numerous workshops on anger, single parenting, fathers and daughters, etc. He was co-chair of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism 1987-1989 and board president of the California Men's Gathering Inc., 1993-94 as well as a co-planner of the 8th, 15th and 25th gatherings. In 1991, he created Everyman, which helps men bring other men in their community together for a day of information and process with the goal of building or strengthening the local men's community. In 1994, he appeared in a powerful video on diversity, The Color of Fear, which won the National Education Media Gold Apple Award (and the remake Walking Each Other Home) . That year, he also created the Browser's Bookmobile, a mobile library of over 1,000 books on men's issues anw has a full-time RVer for 4 1/2 years, traveling to rural communities too small to support their own bookstore or library. He drove over 30,000 miles through 24 states on this part of his journey. He has presented numerous times at not only the Men and Masculinity conferences but also The National Congress of Men. He has been the male panelist in "GenderSpeak" a communications program produced by Harper's Bazaar, presented for three years at the Chico State University's "Men in the 90's" weeks, at Senator Maddy's Annual Women's Conference, the International Men's Conference, and was a co-presenter with John James on several conferences on Men in Recovery. Television and radio appearances include Oprah, Real Personal on CNBC and Hour Magazine, and he has appeared on numerous radio and live Internet news programs and in magazine and newspaper articles. In 1994, The National Men's Resource Center became a not-for-profit educational organization and Gordon became one of its Founding Board Members where he continues to hold the position of Executive Director.. gordonclay@aol.com. (See complete vitae.)
The year 2000 had much significance for me as it is a year of milestones. I turned 60 in March, the year of the dragon. I was born in the year of the dragon. I will have been doing men's work for 25 years, will have been doing Healing the Father Wound® workshops for 15 years (45 weekends for women only, 27 for men only, and 8 years of women and men via Clearing the Air), and have 5½ years on the road in the Browsers' Bookmobile, the last 4 ½ of those years being full-time on the road.
I have done much personal work, over the years, and have learned much from others. As some of you know, I did what I had asked you to do. Take the year 2000 to eliminate the things I don't like about myself, to replace them with new patterns, belief systems, and ways of being that really suit who I am at my core, so that I can start the new millennium, which really began 01.01.01, as that person.
My way of doing this was to do a one-year advance, not retreat, free from outside influences, and see what really works for me. This meant no workshops, no income producing work, no traveling, no television, radio, newspapers, or magazines, no direct human contact of any kind for up to a year, and maybe more. I heartedly recommend it. Gordon Clay
Years felt out of place in a group or crowd. Learned to be there, and went into a business that demands it - account service in major advertising agencies. Still, it didn't feel like home.
Much work to find out my inherent self starting 10/31/73 upon the completion of 8 years of marriage, and taking on the role of a single, full-time dad. We were living in Kansas City, MO and I couldn't find men who were raising children on their own. So, I started The Fathers' Network to make it okay for men to come together and talk about father issues, and for me, the speical issues of raising a daughter. In '75 it was a simple day-long conference called Fathering Isn't Like It Used To Be. In '81, it was my first of __ California Men's Gathering followed in '82 with my first of ___ Men & Masculinity Conferences. Also in '82 was the beginning of a series of workshops starting with Quich 1 and 2 - Real Women, Real Men workshops. In '83 I attended Illiana Asara's Extended Family gathering and then, in 1984, a lot happened. I went to Who are You early in the year and started training in Oriental Massage which I certified in by the end of the year. In the Spring I attend a series of evening treks called Magic of the Elements and in May, started the first of six levels of the Human Awareness Institute's (HAI) program. In the Spring, I attended a party primarily made up of male therapists I had met at the California Men's Gatherings. In talking with them, several of them were doing workshops. To my surprise, none of them had let other men in the group know this. I gathered up all of their fliers, ask those who didn't bring fliers to mail me one, and that night I went home and created the first issue of Menstuff, a quarterly calendar of events and resources. The next morning, I started making calls for missing information, people's mailing addresses, and before the next weeked, had the first issue in the mail. Over time it became one of the largest paid-subscription men's publications and in 1996 was converted from paper to the Internet where it now contains over 49,000 htmls of information, news, events, resources, and books on hundreds of men's issues. (Personal growth work.)
Gordon Clay has been a men's movement activist since 1976. He is the creator of the Father & Teen-age Daughter Rites-of-Passage (1985), the four-night, three day Healing the Father Wound® workshops (1985) for women only and men only and a six-day, five-night workshop Clearing the Air Between Women and Men (1997) for people who had graduated from the Healing the Father Wound workshop. He is the founder of The National Men's Resource Center (1982), mailed out the first issue of Menstuff ® (1985) which was converted to this web site (1996), and is the curator of the Browsers' Bookmobile (1994), the nation's first and only mobile reference library dedicated to positive change in male roles and relationships. Vitae.
Clay has long believed that knowledge and information are the keys to "Make the world safe for children". (See the bumper sticker.) Concerned with the dramatic increase in men's health problems, suicide, and violence in our homes and schools, Clay decided to move much of his private library, believed to be the largest men's issues collection in America, into a converted motor home to make this information more readily available to communities too small to support their own facility. He sets up shop in parking lots or wherever local laws will allow and advertises "Continuous Showings - Bill Moyers' A Gathering of Men, while waiting for the curious to ask what the bookmobile is all about.
Unlike other mobile libraries, Browsers' Bookmobile was not a lending library. Rather, visitors were encouraged to browse through the extensive collection, perusing volumes on-the-spot that have particular appeal. While books, tapes, periodicals and videos may not be removed, Clay has lists of publishers', distributors or local bookstores with a separate men's section, where browsers can obtain their personal copy. And, as a nonprofit organization, a purchase of books through Menstuff helped continue our work to end men's isolation.
Currently stocked with over 1,000 books and videos covering 60 main men's issues, Clay hopes to expand holding capacity to several thousand books on fathering, divorce, single-parenting, health, relationships, work, mid-life transition and other issues involving men's physical and emotional well-being. Various informational brochures, bumper stickers and guides are available for purchase merchandise.
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1. Welcome inside. 2. Heading East. 3. Livermore, CA. 4. Materials ready to catch a passerby. 5. Sacramento Conference on Self-Esteem, 6. Willits, CA. 7. Clear Lake, CA. 8. Penngrove, CA. 9. Carpenteria, CA. 10. Las Vegas, NV. 11. Happy Holidays '95. 12. Eslon Institute, Big Sur, CA. 13. Sacramento Governor's Conference on Fathers. 14. Harbin Hots Springs, Fathers' Day, '96. 15. Men & Masculinity Conference, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR. 16. MiVoden in Hadden Lake, ID. 17. Idaho. 18. Aryan Nation, Hadden Lake, ID. 19. Spokane, WA. 20. Ferry to Bainbridge Island, WA. 21. Coyote Farm, Bainbridge Island, WA. 22. The curator, Holidays '96. 23. Salton Sea, CA. 23a. Mt Madonna Center, Watsonville, CA. 24. Headstart Conference, Sacramento. 24. Burning Man, Black Rock, NV, 1999. 25. The Hot Springs at Burning Man. 26. Summer in Nevada City, CA. 27. Ft. Baker, CA 28. Hood River, OR. 29. Hey man! 30. 30,000 miles in Jefferson, OR 11/21/99. 31. Gordon Clay starting his year-long 'advance' 01.01.00. 32. The "office". Catching up on scanning for this web site. 33. The living room - about 1/3 of the 3,500 plus books on men's issues that we have on-site. 34. Gordon on 01.01.01 at the conclusion of the advance. 35. Gordon after being back in the "real world" for a couple of days. 36. Back on (off) the road again, Cazadero, CA. 37. Burning Man 2001. 38. The Browsers' Bookmobile resting place under the 30' rose bush in Brookings, OR. 9/8/01. 39. Gordon on 01.01.02 40. Presenter at the North Coast Educational Summit 2.7-9.03. 41. Gordon on 01.01.03
The bookmobile has been through 24 states since August, 1994. A milestone was reached on November 21, 1999 when the bookmobile passed the 30,000 mile mark in Jefferson, OR. It has since been retired from its travels and will take up permanent residence at Sea Horse Ranch and the Wildwood Himitage (vs. Hermitage) & Tantrum Yoga® Center North of Brookings, OR in early November, 2001. It will serve as a Doctorate Study Library for students choosing to explore Men's Studies. In addition to the 1,000 book library in the Bookmobile, there are an additional 2,500 books on men's issues due to be shelved in a new library at the facility in the summer of 2003. Included are basically all of the books listed in the "Books" section on our www.menstuff.org web site.
The bookmobile is just the latest venture for this men's work pioneer who launched the Fathers' Network (1976) to find other single fathers whom he could network with in an effort to raise his then ten-year-old daughter. Ever since then he's been on a mission to "end men's isolation".
Founded in 1982, The National Men's Resource Center, an educational nonprofit charity (68.0337499), offers information and resources concerning some 300 men's issues to anyone on behalf of men. In addition to the library, Clay speaks to Lion's Clubs, at Women's Centers on college campus' and while there, demonstrates the value of a men's studies program at the college level. He also works with bookstores and libraries to develop men's issues sections. His itinerary is fluid to allow trips to be a guest lecturer in women's studies courses, or give "workshops" or make occasional appearances on the various talk shows around the country, from Oprah in Chicago, IL and Rick at Night in San Luis Obsipo, CA.
The Center had published Menstuff®, The National Men's Resource since 1985, which was a quarterly listing of hundreds of men's events nationwide plus an annual directory listing over 2,600 Organizations and Resources and Publications for men nationwide. In May, 1996 it was converted from a printed format to this web site (http://www.menstuff.org). As of 5.1.03, it contained over 238 megabytes of information concerning cover 300 men's issues. The web site is updated atleast weekly.
Be well. And, do what you can to end men's isolation and insure that the world is safe for all children.
SPEAKER 2005 -1981: Mankind Project '99 conference in Indianapolis and '05 conference in Milwaukee; Senator Maddy's 5th Fresno (CA) Women's Conf; State of California's 14th Conf on Self-Esteem; Harper's Bazaar "GenderSpeak" panel at Today's Woman conf, Nordstrom & Neiman Marcus; "Men in the 90's" Chico State University 3x; Men in Recovery with John James 2x; Inter Men's Conf in Austin, TX 2x; Keynote at 1st Men's Symposium, Walnut Creek, CA; "What Do Men Really Want" conf; Mid-Coast Psychological Assoc & Family Services of Santa Cruz and numerous presentations at National Conferences on Men & Masculinity and California Men's Gatherings.
MEDIA APPEARANCES 1999-1982:
TELEVISION: Oprah Winfrey, Real Personal-CNBC-TV, Hour
Magazine, Rick at Night-San Luis Obispo, People Are Talking-KPIX-TV,
AM San Francisco and AM Weekend-KGO-TV, Express-KQED-TV, Studio
A-KTVU-TV, Do It, SacraMENshow, Metavisions-Viacom Cable.
RADIO: Appearances/guest host of Man-to-Man talk show-KCBS,
and appearances on KFQD-Anchorage, Let's Talk About It-KSOL, Open
Mind-KNBR, Potpourri-KBLX, In A Man's Shoes-Boston, Building Bridges,
Lunch Box & Changing Men-KPFA Berkeley & KFCF Fresno.
MAGAZINES: Brother, Changes, Focus, Man, Marin Family News,
Men's Health, New Republic, New Woman, Quest, San Francisco Image.
NEWSPAPERS: Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Los
Angeles Times, Marin Independent Journal, Oakland Tribune, Pacific
Sun, San Francisco Chronicle, Sober Times, USA Today, Wingspan.
BOOKS: Selection in The Best Man MOVIES: "The Color of
Fear" and the sequel "Walking Each Other Home".
Additional
Vitae & Personal Growth Work
The Himitage Goes to Burning Man - 2007
The Beast - The Guardian of the Himitage
I think anything like that - which is contemplative, silent, shows a person alone - people always feel sad. Is it because we've lost the art of being alone? - Andrew Wyeth
Awards
Contact
Information
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 12, Brookings,
OR 97415-0001
www.wildwoodhimitage.com
