Following his course
Les McCabe ’80
Les McCabe ’80, president of the Institute for Shipboard Education, believes that ships can carry more than cargo.
For many, it takes years – or even decades – to determine what it is one wants to do with his or her life. For Les McCabe, it took a fleeting moment, a single glimpse at a cruise ship and his course couldn’t have been clearer.
It was 1977 and McCabe, a second year student at UC Irvine, lived vicariously through college classmate Lori Miller’s ’80 Semester at Sea voyage. A year later, he saw classmate Jill (Martin) Halvaks ’80 off at the Long Beach harbor for her own voyage.
“I remember going to Long Beach from where the ship was sailing and feeling incredibly envious of the fact that they had this opportunity to travel the world aboard a passenger ship, get class credit and have this once-in-a-lifetime experience,” McCabe recalled. “After getting 100-days worth of letters from both of them, and knowing the tales of their adventures, I was just determined to do this at some point in my life.”
That point came shortly after McCabe completed his undergraduate degree in social ecology.
Knowing that to work as a staff member as part of the Semester at Sea program candidates had to have a master’s degree, McCabe enrolled at the University of Washington where he earned his master’s in social work.
The fall of 1982, degree in hand, he was sailing with the Institute for Shipboard Education’s Semester at Sea program as a member of the residence staff. While doing double duty as a SAS volunteer and working in a private child welfare foundation, McCabe was hired on as SAS operations manager. Two decades later, he’s its president and most enthusiastic supporter.
“Once I sailed,” McCabe gushed, “I was hooked really for life.”
One of the longest-standing study abroad programs in the country, Semester at Sea has educated more than 45,000 students since the 1960s in subjects ranging from art history to engineering. Classes, taught by faculty from colleges and universities across the U.S., connect students to the world around them while they develop a healthy global perspective.
McCabe credits his own connections from UC Irvine for allowing him to find his life’s passion. UC Irvine also helped him find the love of his life. Reacquainted with former classmate Susan Lindsey more than 15 years after leaving UC Irvine, McCabe proposed to his wife of 16 years in front of the dorm room in which they were introduced to one another by Lindsey’s roommate, Halvaks.
“I was back in California visiting and Jill, who said that she’d like to bring Susan to this party,” McCabe said. “We reconnected there. That was 17 years ago and we’ve been married 16 years now.”
McCabe, Susan and their two teen-age sons have enjoyed four voyages together.
“The neat thing about Semester at Sea for me and for faculty and staff is that we bring their families with us, including children,” McCabe explained. “And we form this shipboard community of folks that are moving through the experience together.”
More than 20 years after his initial voyage, McCabe charts a course that continues to provide non-traditional educational programs to students of all ages. Something shipping magnet C.Y. Tung, who in 1970s built the foundation of ISE from earlier programs, would appreciate. Tung was fond of saying that “Ships can carry more than cargo, they can carry ideas.”
Les McCabe makes sure that they do.
— Michelle Williams, UCI Alumni Association
