---
category: Private Organization
location: New Jersey, USA
summary: The Ocean Living Institute was a sea-steading foundation incorporated in
  New Jersey by Adam Starchild, who also served as the incorporating agent for Brother
  Paul's Children's Mission on North Fox Island.
tags:
- Organization
- Foundation
- United_States
- New_Jersey
- 1970s
- North_Fox_Island
- Adam_Starchild
---

The Ocean Living Institute was a sea-steading foundation incorporated in New Jersey by [Adam Starchild](/people/adam-starchild/), who also served as the incorporating agent for [Brother Paul's Children's Mission](/organizations/brother-pauls-childrens-mission/) on [North Fox Island](/places/north-fox-island/). In August 1976, [Gerald Richards](/people/gerald-richards/) handed over a letter he received from [Dyer Grossman](/people/dyer-grossman/) postmarked 19 July 1976, which had a return address for the Ocean Living Institute. In the letter, [Grossman](/people/dyer-grossman/) detailed plans to set up a series of foster homes in Michigan, citing the profitability in receiving monthly payments from the government for taking in runaways and problem kids. The letter also mentioned a twelve-year-old boy [Grossman](/people/dyer-grossman/) said he had procured through a Big Brother program who he described as innocent but that some camping trips may change that.[^1]

[Adam Starchild](/people/adam-starchild/) was actually a man named Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who appeared to have faked his own death in 1975. [Starchild](/people/adam-starchild/) had been a scout master in Minneapolis kicked out of the organization in 1965 after he expressed a desire to engage in sex with boys there. The Ocean Living Institute served as one of [Starchild](/people/adam-starchild/)'s corporate vehicles, alongside his role in incorporating [Brother Paul's Children's Mission](/organizations/brother-pauls-childrens-mission/), which operated the summer camp on [North Fox Island](/places/north-fox-island/) used by [Francis Shelden](/people/francis-shelden/) for child exploitation.[^1]

[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.