Career
Willoughby lived next to the Old Pine Farm Natural Land Trust in Deptford, Gloucester County, part of the New Jersey Green Acres program He was raised in the Panama Canal zone. He was involved with the Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA), formed in 1957 to resist the United States Government"s program of nuclear weapons testing, one of the first organizations to employ direct nonviolent action to protest against the nuclear arms race.
With the other crew members, William R. Huntington, James Peck, Orion Sherwood, and skipper Albert Bigelow he was arrested 5 nautical miles (9 km) from Honolulu and sentenced to 60 days in jail.
The Life Center was home to, and supported the activities of the Philadelphia branch of Movement for a New Society. The Willoughbys lived in a small third-floor apartment where they practiced living simply.
When a Philadelphia Daily News reporter encountered them there in June 1980, they were baking their own bread. In 1981 he helped to start Peace Brigades International.
Taking on the simple life was also a way to keep any income away from the federal government.
Even so, the Internal Revenue Service confiscated their red Volkswagen for back taxes. During the auction at the Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Chester in 1970, the Willoughbys and supporters served lemonade in the hallway before submitting the winning bid of $900 to buy the car back. In 1992, George and Lillian Willoughby provided 30+ acres of undeveloped property along Big Timber Creek as the foundation of the Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust located in Deptford Township, New Jersey. Participant of the New Jersey Green Acres Program, this open space has available to the public from dawn to dusk for more than 20 years.
Willoughby died on January 5, 2010.