NMU alumnus Pete Stobie was named Outdoor Educator of the Year by the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education. He was one of several state educators honored for their work in bringing science and nature to students in the classroom and to the public through other creative outlets. The honorees were recognized at the alliance’s annual conference in Sault Ste. Marie.

Stobie, who recently relocated to Pennsylvania, was on hand to receive the Julian W. Smith Outdoor Educator of the Year Award. He spent 19 years as a certified heritage interpreter and, eventually, education director at the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

“Pete’s outgoing style and use of props and puppets made him a Michigan legend, one who has positively influenced thousands of school children and families,” said Kevin Frailey, Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education awards chair and education services manager at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said, 

An entertaining educator, Stobie also had received numerous past awards from the National Association of Interpretation. Stobie said he was honored to win an award named for Julian Smith, a longtime professor at Michigan State University who, according to Frailey, “enabled Michigan to become the undisputed leader in the development and implementation of outdoor education in the 1950s and ‘60s.”   

Stobie graduated from NMU in 1996 with a major in outdoor recreation and a minor in biology.