nitial contact with the Gurdjieff Work in the Rochester, N.Y. area began with a meeting of Henry McCorkle, who had been searching for this work and Walter Chappell, who had been active in this work in San Francisco, California. Chappell put McCorkle in contact with the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York where permission was granted for work to begin in Rochester under the direction of Mrs. Louise March, assisted by Mr. Christopher Fremantle.

In 1978, Henry and Annabeth McCorkle, along with the group which they led, began to work separately from Mrs. March but under the guidance of John Pentland of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York. After his death in 1984, the group’s affiliation with the foundation continued through Paul Reynard until his death in 2005.

The Rochester Gurdjieff Center has a current membership of about 75 people, all of whom live “in the world” with all the attendant challenges and responsibilities. In 1992, the group bought a parcel of land about a twenty minute drive east of Rochester. Over the next few years, the members erected a large building which contains a Movements hall, meeting rooms, a library, and kitchen-dining facilities. The Center provides a full complement of activities and training which includes: weekly group meetings; weekly Movements classes; groups which study G. I. Gurdjieff’s writings; music study groups; private talks for individual exchange; and short and long “work periods” for more intensive work together under the principles of self-study established by G. I. Gurdjieff. Members of the Rochester Gurdjieff Center occasionally attend conferences and workshops with members of other Gurdjieff Work groups.

Henry and Annabeth McCorkle are responsible for the Rochester Gurdjieff Center. They have been “in the Work” for over forty years. Their initial training was with Louise March, who was Mr. Gurdjieff’s secretary and the German translator of his vast, mythic treatise Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson. In addition to Paul Reynard, they have studied with John Pentland, Jeanne de Salzmann, Michel de Salzmann, William Segal, and Henri Tracol. They continue to meet with other Gurdjieff group leaders, both nationally and internationally, to exchange around the common theme of “work on oneself.”

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Rochester Gurdjieff Center is an outreach initiative of Stillwood Study Center.
For more information, visit www.stillwoodstudycenter.org.