Bob Hess 1937 – 2005 a Steward for the Earth
By Pamela Steinbach

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” — Edmund Burke

Take good care of whatever you have. Don’t spend money when you don’t have to. Use only the resources you need and share the rest. That’s how Bob Hess lived his life. He was our friend, our mentor, our model for responsible and intentional living, and he taught many of us to care for the things in our lives.

“We don’t need to be spending money on heating our house when the sun can do it,” Bob told his wife Carol in 1977. So, as a steward of his home, resources and talent, Bob went to work “going solar” with the same zeal and confidence he had when he was the training director at the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center.

Back then, he didn’t have the Internet at his fingertips to get the latest updates on technology, and he couldn’t find a builder with the knowledge or inclination to build for energy efficiency. So Bob got some books from the library, figured out the mathematical angles for solar collection, drew up rough plans and figured out the rest as he went along. “If you saw his drawings, you wouldn’t see much detail — it was in his head,” Carol remembers. “I can still see him standing outside in his thinking pose looking up at the house. That was the kind of talent he had learned growing up working on the farm.”

Carol goes on to relate how “people thought Bob was absolutely, totally nuts. They didn’t think he knew what he was doing. The neighbors all stood and watched this do-it-yourself project, marveling at the fact that Bob had the chutzpa to do it and, on top of all that, to do it in such an unconventional way.”

Bob cut into the roof of the house that fall. With a little help from Carol and their two young children, he did almost everything from permits to electrical work to drywall — everything except installing the carpet. And while doing all that, Bob was still working his full-time job. By Christmas, the family was able to celebrate the holidays in their 500-square-foot, highly efficient passive solar addition, which includes a greenhouse that contributed lettuce to the holiday feast.

“The whole project cost $12,000, and in no time at all, we recouped it and had a nice place to live,” says Carol.

And it is a nice place to live. The attractive brick wall across from the greenhouse not only beautifies the addition, but also serves to store heat from the low winter sun. Like the technology used by indigenous builders over 800 years ago, the wall is perfectly situated to collect solar heat in the winter but remains shaded by eaves in the summer. A patch of ceramic tile on the greenhouse floor also functions to store heat.

In addition, Bob designed a fan-and-ductwork system to circulate the warmth of the greenhouse throughout the residence, and on winter evenings, window quilts in the greenhouse are pulled down to retain the heat gathered from the sun. Because Bob used two-by-six studs, he could fit in more insulation and got the most energy-saving windows he could find. In the end, he and his family got more space and cut their electricity consumption in half.

Bob simply felt that it’s important for people leave a legacy, to leave the world a better place than when they entered it. He saw how he himself could do that. And he did it.

Wisely Borrowing from the Past ...

The engineering Bob’s neighbors thought so unconventional and crazy actually was common centuries ago.

In the 12th century, for instance, the Pueblo Indians built whole cities and villages in what is now northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona with the buildings situated to collect the sun’s heat on adobe walls. Many of these buildings are still in use today. Their orientation is such that, in summer months, the sun doesn’t hit the walls directly. Gradually, by evening, when it’s needed most, the heat radiates through to the interiors.

Like the Pueblo Indians, Bob fixed his addition on the south side of his house to capture the sun’s heat. And to mitigate it in the summer, he used eaves.