[citation needed] He attended the Case Institute of Technology where he briefly studied engineering for two years on a basketball scholarship, before transferring to Miami University, from which he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English literature in 1958.
[citation needed] He then attended the Stanford University graduate creative writing program on a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship from 1958–59; having entered the NROTC program to fund his undergraduate studies, Babbs was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps following the end of his fellowship.
[citation needed] He trained as a helicopter pilot and served in one of the first American advisory units in Vietnam from 1962-1963 prior to his discharge.
They became friends, maintained a correspondence while Babbs was stationed in the Far East with the Marines, and eventually formed the Merry Pranksters.
[5] While on a trip to New York City, the Pranksters needed an automobile that could hold fourteen people and all of their filming and taping equipment.
[6] Prior to Babbs’ creation, it was discovered that particular music usually sounded distorted when cranked to high levels because of the concrete floor in the San Francisco Longshoreman’s Union Hall (where the Trips Festival was taking place).
Babbs currently lives on his farm in Dexter, Oregon (near Kesey’s house) with his wife Eileen, a high school English teacher.
[3][8] In January 2022 Tsunami Books of Eugene, Oregon published Babbs' recently completed memoir "Cronies.