? The HOBY Story
5
I
n the summer of 1958, Hugh O’Brian received the invitation that would
change his life forever. At the time, O’Brian had already made a name for
himself as an actor portraying the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp on television
and appearing in numerous films. When he received a cable from Dr. Albert
Schweitzer welcoming him to French equatorial Africa for a visit, he did not
hesitate to accept. O’Brian had long admired the German doctor-missionarytheologian-musician, and within two weeks he arrived at Dr. Schweitzer’s
remote hospital complex in Africa. During his visit, O’Brian spent his days
assisting the volunteers in the hospital and his nights with Dr. Schweitzer
discussing global peace and world politics. During their discussions, Dr.
Schweitzer told O’Brian that he felt “the most important thing in education is
to teach young people to think for themselves,” which O’Brian would never
forget.
After an inspiring nine days, O’Brian prepared to return to America.
Before saying goodbye, Dr. Schweitzer took O’Brian’s hand and asked, “Hugh,
what are you going to do with this?” It was these words combined with his
unforgettable visit that compelled Hugh O’Brian to form Hugh O’Brian Youth
Leadership (HOBY). Two weeks after returning from his 1958 visit to Africa,
O’Brian put together a prototype seminar for young leaders.
From 1958 to 1967, leadership seminars took place in Los Angeles for
sophomores from California. In 1968 the scope of the HOBY program grew to
include national and international participants which led to the expanded eightday global leadership seminar called the World Leadership Congress (WLC)
held annually. In an effort to include more students nationwide, three-day and
four-day HOBY Leadership Seminars were instituted in 1977 in which high
schools throughout the country may nominate a sophomore to attend a HOBY
seminar in their state.