Robert Cullenbine was one of the Merry Pranksters

Merry Pranksters

The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon...

 and a coordinator at Mid-peninsula Free University

Mid-peninsula Free University

The Midpeninsula Free University was one of the largest and most successful of the many free universities that sprang up on and around college campuses in the mid-1960s in the wake of the Free Speech Movement at UC-Berkeley and the nationwide anti-war Teach-ins which followed...

.

Biography

Robert "Bob" "Cully" "Papa Elf" Cullenbine was raised in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. He attended Yale and Washington University prior to moving in 1958 to Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

. He served in the U.S.Army and then attended Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

. from which he received a BA in Economics. He was a Vietnam era anti-war activist and community organizer with the Midpeninsula Free University serving as the college's coordinator (President) in 1969.

In 1998 he left his career in real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

  to devote full time to The Family Giving Tree

The Family Giving Tree

The Family Giving Tree is a charitable organization that strives to alleviate the consequences of poverty in the California Bay Area. The organization is based on the principle of helping those in need and inspiring philanthropy in the community...

, a charity founded by his daughter Jennifer. He served as the organization's CFO and Development Director, and retired in 2008. In 2008 he founded Children First Focus, a non-profit serving children internationally. He is a former Board Member of The Association of Fundraising Professionals, Silicon Valley Chapter. Cullenbine served in Missouri as one of presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama's Deputy Field Organizers during the 2008 campaign.

Cullenbine was one of 135 candidates who ran for California governor in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, receiving 632 votes.

External links

• Family Giving Tree