Educator, Activist, Psychoanalyst, Philosopher, World Traveler, Philanthropist. Prynce (born Prince, sometimes called Pryns) Hopkins was a closely watched figure in his time, with his exploits, travels and marriages reported in the international press. He launched influential schools, ran a luxury hotel, was arrested for his writings on pacifism at the start of World War I, and wrote 19 books on a wide range of topics. Hopkins was born in Oakland, California, and was raised primarily by close family friends while his parents traveled. Hopkins himself soon began traveling and never stopped. Over the years, Hopkins earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Yale, a master's degree in education from Columbia (after brief stays at MIT and Stanford to continue his engineering studies), and a doctorate in psychology from the University of London. In 1911, Hopkins patented a form of helicopter (patent 1,001,849). Her father, Charles, married Ruth Singer in 1868, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. When she died, the shares passed first to Charles, then to Prynce on his father's death. Prynce's mother was Mary Isabelle Booth, Charles' third wife. The family home in Santa Barbara, which Prynce owned for many years, was the stunning rock-and-gypsum El Nido on Upper Garden Street. After his father's death (1913), Prynce Hopkins began to use his inheritance. That same year, Hopkins opened the Boyland School on the Riviera in Santa Barbara. The school was successful and required larger facilities, so Hopkins purchased 30 acres overlooking Oak Park in Santa Barbara. On it he built a large school, best known for its one-acre world map where children could navigate between continents. The school was closed in 1918 after Hopkins and another head teacher...... middle of paper ...... founded the journal Science and Society in London and established the Committee for the Psychological Study of International Problems. Hopkins ran unsuccessfully for a Democratic seat in the California State Assembly in 1945 on a platform of "Human needs first." Around this time he launched Freedom Magazine which only remained in circulation about a year. In 1948 he gained some notoriety for his book Gone Up In Smoke, an early analysis of the dangers of smoking. His many books included An Instinctive Philosophy (1916), The Ethics of Murder (1917), Psychology of Social Movements (1938), Religious Beliefs and Practices in the Land of the Incas (1938), From Gods to Dictators (1944), A Westerner Looks East (1951), his autobiography, Both Hands Before the Fire (1961) and World Invisible (1963). Shortly before his death at the age of 85, he once again traveled around the world.