Opening the Door Between Two Worlds

In many cultures, a labyrinth is regarded as a door between two worlds, an ideal place to ask questions, seek inspiration and gain wisdom. In much the same way, Bastyr University trustee and benefactor Margaret (Peggy) Brevoort has devoted her life to connecting disparate worlds, to serving as a conduit between tradition and innovation. It is perhaps no coincidence, then, that this insightful, ahead-of-her-time woman now spends her leisure time constructing intricate labyrinths and helping others to do the same.

Brevoort and her husband, Bill, are nothing short of legends in the world of natural products. They were the first to manufacture Chinese herbal formulations in the United States at a company called East Earth Herb, Inc. (now A.M. Todd Botanicals).

Brevoorts
Peggy and Bill Brevoort

The Brevoorts recently named Bastyr in a Charitable Remainder Unitrust. University officials are excited about the impact such gifts can have on Bastyr's future.

"We are extremely grateful to Peggy and Bill Brevoort for this extraordinary act of generosity," Bastyr President Dr. Daniel K. Church said on behalf of the board of trustees. "Because their gift is unrestricted, it will allow us to allocate resources in keeping with programs and priorities that evolve over time."

"Planned giving of this nature is of profound benefit to the University," President Church continued, noting that "it also creates an enduring legacy for donors and their families."

Of all the organizations the Brevoorts could choose to support, why Bastyr?

"Our professional lives have been devoted to natural products," Peggy says. "We believe very strongly in working with nature instead of against her to enhance health. Bastyr teaches (this to) practitioners who in turn teach patients and help create a healthier, more peaceful world."

The Brevoorts have been involved with Bastyr since the 1970s when they first started their business and made "conscious decisions to live simple, healthy lives."

They continue to dedicate their time, talents and financial resources to "areas where you can really see change," and they believe strongly in the wisdom of leveraging to generate the greatest benefit from their efforts.

"Bastyr is educating future generations to make a difference," Peggy says. "None of us is getting one second younger, and we need to make sure that the University continues to turn out these fantastic practitioners. An investment in Bastyr is really an investment in our own health, along with the future of the planet. We need to make certain that this medicine remains in the forefront and doesn't disappear again."

A Single and Compelling Path Leading to the Center

Born in New York City, Peggy's fascinating journey has taken her to the Oregon coast, the South Pacific, a yoga ashram in British Columbia and now, since her official retirement in 2000, to the Big Island of Hawaii, where she is "done with the cold and damp and can garden year round."

Peggy married Bill Brevoort in 1961. After graduating from Columbia University, Bill landed a job teaching fine arts at the University of Oregon and the couple moved west. Part of the "back to the land" movement that gained popularity in the late 1960s, the Brevoorts grew their own food and lived a simple, rural life. "People were just beginning to discover that what you put in your mouth matters," Peggy recalls.

Peggy's 41-foot replica of the famed labyrinth
from the Chartres Cathedral in France
in her Hawaiian backyard.

The couple began to learn more about natural foods, herbs and Chinese medicine as a natural outgrowth of their lifestyle. They founded East Earth Herb in Oregon in the early 1970s and began importing Chinese herbs, which they sold to individuals, health food stores and natural food co-ops.

Along the way, the Brevoorts, then with a young son and daughter in tow, spent a year at a yoga ashram in British Columbia. There they becamevegetarians, learned to meditate and lived without telephones or TV (Peggy continues to think of television as a "disturbing form of energy.") It was a long way from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan where Peggy and Bill grew up. And while it was "very isolated," Peggy says it was also "enormously valuable…a very special time for us to pause and adjust to a simpler lifestyle."

In addition to beginning a threeyear term on Bastyr's board of trustees, Peggy Brevoort also serves on the board of the American Botanical Council. She was named Woman of the Year by the Association of Women in Natural Foods and also received the Natural Business Communication's Leadership in Business Award. Brevoort has lectured extensively on the subject of natural products to groups across the globe.

Recreating Chartres in Kohala

The Brevoorts now live on 10 acres on the Big Island of Hawaii's northern Kohala coast, traveling back and forth to the mainland for family and business reasons. Once again opening a door between the worlds she inhabits, Peggy has constructed a 41-foot replica of the famed labyrinth from the Chartres Cathedral in France among the lush tropical plants in her Hawaiian backyard.

She believes labyrinths offer "a wonderful analogy for our spiritual journey. And unlike a maze – which confuses you – a labyrinth always follows a single path that leads to a center."

An amateur astronomer, Bill Brevoort now has his telescope pointed skyward when at the couple's cabin, located 5,000 feet above sea level near South Point, on the Big Island of Hawaii – a perfect place to view the constellations and contemplate the larger world.

British astronomer Sir Martin Rees once likened telescopes to time machines, observing that "they reveal galaxies so far away that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. We in astronomy have an advantage in studying the universe, in that we can actually see the past."

True visionaries, the Brevoorts have devoted their lives to opening doors between earth and sky, convention and innovation, past and future. With labyrinths and telescopes, they have studied the earth and learned about the stars, gaining wisdom and enlightenment from both ancient cultures and future civilizations. As they continue to learn about what Sir Martin Rees called "the dimensions and ingredients of our entire cosmos," the Brevoorts have blazed a trail to help the rest of us "at last make some sense of our cosmic habitat."