13
ing. He loved swimming underwater with the fish. He signed up for
a free dive program at his high school, through which he obtained his
certification in scuba diving. Spending time underwater also sparked
a desire in him to learn more about life under the sea. He decided to
study marine life in college.
After Hillenburg graduated from Savanna High School in Ana-
heim in the late 1970s, he enrolled at Humboldt State University.
Humboldt State is located about 275 miles (443 km) north of San
Francisco, in Arcata, California.The campus is near ancient redwood
forests, mountains, and beaches, giving Hillenburg more natural
spaces to explore.
At Humboldt State, Hillenburg studied marine life and natural
resource planning. He says:
Humboldt has incredibly rigorous science programs. It has
dedicated teachers and students. Fortunately for me the
school is not only surrounded by redwood forests, but it sits
along an incredible part of the California coast. There are
bays, estuaries, undeveloped coastline and open ocean and,
of course, the school utilizes the availability of these resourc-
es in their courses. One time my biology class went into the
mountains to collect stream organisms. We were collecting
insects in this tiny stream and under this rock we found a
3-foot lamprey eel!
9
While at Humboldt State, Hillenburg also took art classes and
says that he blossomed as a painter while at the school. Hillenburg
remembers one of his art teachers at college asking why he was study-
ing science when he was an artist. Some of Hillenburg’s work was ex-
hibited at local museums. In 1984 Hillenburg graduated from Hum-
boldt State with a bachelor’s degree in natural resource planning and
interpretation, with an emphasis in marine resources.
Teaching Marine Biology
After graduation Hillenburg took a job teaching marine biology at
the Orange County Marine Institute (known today as the Orange
