Toby Hemenway (April 23, 1952 – December 20, 2016)[1] was an American author and educator who wrote extensively on permaculture and ecological issues.
After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Hemenway worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories including Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company.
[1] At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture.
A career change followed, and Hemenway and his wife, Kiel, spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon.
He moved to Portland, Oregon in 2004, and after six years of developing urban sustainability resources there, Hemenway and his wife divided their time between Sebastopol, California and western Montana.