September 16, 1926 – March 26, 2022
Alan Horobin passed away early in the morning an hour before sunrise just after breakfast on March 26, 2022. He was 95 years old and lived an amazing life. He was the only member of his family to be born in America. His father worked as a foreman for the Ford Motor Company in its infancy, and after seven years of living in the United States, they returned to England in 1930. Alan grew up in England and lived in the county of Middlesex and later in Barford Saint Martin, Salisbury, Wiltshire. When World War II found its way to his doorstep, he was too young to enlist so he joined the Home Guard and became leader of his Boy Scout troop when the adults went off to war. This involved providing any kind of support they could during the time London was being bombed by the Luftwaffe. Afterwards, Alan’s sense of adventure got the better of him and he traveled to Norway with the scouts and later to Denmark as an exchange student. Shortly thereafter in December of 1949, he traveled with a group of three other young men on a cycling trip across North Africa. There they met local people, drank coffee with nuts at the bottom, and ate copious amounts of dates. While traveling through French-occupied Algeria, they had a run-in with police on horseback, and stayed off the roads for the duration of their time through that country. After leaving Algeria, they were informed by the British military that they had just ridden their bikes over the world’s largest minefield. The trip through Africa ended abruptly when Alan had a grumbling appendicitis. British officials were able to secure passage for them on board a ship of sketchy repute to Naples, Italy.
In the late 1950s, Alan was in agricultural college where he got his degree in animal husbandry. From there, he immigrated to British Columbia, Canada to do logging with horses. He found his way to San Francisco where he leased a woman’s boarding house off Powell Street and hired a manager to operate it for him. During this time, he went to Alaska for salmon fishing. His time in America was spent with the plan of earning enough money to buy his own farm in England. Upon returning from visiting his family in England, he met Carol living at his boarding house and eventually married her. They moved to San Rafael, Marin County and stayed there for 30 years.
Alan was passionate about botany and belonged to the Marin Native Plant Society for many years. He worked as the head landscaper for the Marinwood Recreation Center for 15 years and then started his own business as a landscape designer. He specialized in drought-resistant gardens as well as English and Japanese gardens. He was an avid hiker and camper, a true lover of nature. Although he only has a few pieces to show, Alan was also a talented creative jeweler and sculptor and appreciated art and culture. He meditated and believed in the magic in life. Alan was a wonderful husband and father, creating the most beautiful gardens wherever he lived. Upon retiring, he moved to Jacksonville, Oregon with Carol where he spent the next 20 years volunteering with the Jacksonville Woodland Association, opening up historical trails, keying plants, putting up signage at trailheads. He also created the Beekman Arboretum in Jacksonville that showcases native plants of that area.
After 20 years in Oregon, they returned to California where the family could be closer together again. Alan Horobin was a quiet and thoughtful man and very well loved by all who knew him. Alan was preceded in death by his brother Anthony and his sister Mary. He leaves behind his wife Carol; his brother David; his son Alexander Alan (Penny) Horobin; daughter Gwyneth (Olivier) Perrier; and his grandchildren Forrest and Miles Horobin, and Chloe Perrier.