Cyril A. Stebbins

Cyril Adelbert Stebbins, who lived from 1880 to 1953, was an American educator specializing in nature and agricultural education whose early twentieth century publications significantly influenced how gardening was incorporated into children's schooling. During the First World War he played a major role in the United States School Garden Army, a federal victory garden initiative, writing much of its curriculum. Earlier, while earning his Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1910 and his master's degree in 1912, he organized a community garden project in which local children grew fruits and vegetables for profit, generating such enthusiasm that parents and children petitioned for his retention. He later headed the Biological Science Division at Chico State Normal School and taught in Southern California, including at North Hollywood High School, and collaborated with the geneticist Ernest Brown Babcock on several publications.