Nobel Peace Prize Recipient. Charles Albert Gobat received world-wide notoriety for being awarded the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize, sharing the award jointly given with Élie Ducommun, another well-known Swiss peace activist. According to the Nobel Prize committee, Gobat received his award for leadership as the “Honorary Secretary, Permanent International Peace Bureau, Bern, Switzerland and Secretary-General, Inter-Parliamentary Union.” Besides personally receiving the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize, he was the director of the International Peace Bureau, when the organization received the 1910 Nobel Peace Prize. Participating in the Inter-Parliamentary Union from its beginnings in 1889, his tireless efforts brought popularly elected representatives from various countries together at meetings and congresses in an attempt to keep world peace. Upon Ducommun's 1906 death, Gobat became the Secretary-General of the International Peace Bureau. This meant that he was at the same time heading the offices of both the Inter-Parliamentary Union and International Peace Bureau. Without receiving a salary, he planned the IPU yearly conferences with the agendas, drafted proposals for resolutions, attempted to establish inter-parliamentary groups in non-participating countries, edited a periodical, and distributed literature about peace and arbitration. Born the son of a protestant minister, his uncle the Rev. Samuel Gobat was the Bishop of Jerusalem. He was well-educated attending the University of Basel, University of Bern, and University of Paris and receiving his Doctorate in Law, graduating summa cum laude in 1867 from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He had a law practice while giving civil law lectures at the University of Bern for fourteen years. In 1882, he entered an educational administrator role after being appointed superintendent of public instruction for Bern, a position he held for thirty years. He made progressive educational reforms such as vocational training. He published in 1891 the text, “Republic of Bern and France during the Wars of Religion” and in 1900 “A People's History of Switzerland.” After entering politics, he was elected to the Grand Council of Bern in 1882, was a member of the Council of States of Switzerland from 1884 to 1890, and from 1890 until his death in 1914, was a member of the National Council, the other chamber of the central Swiss legislative body. During his term in 1902, he sponsored several pieces of legislation, which applied to arbitration to commercial treaties. While attending meeting of the peace conference at Bern, he arose as if to speak but collapsed, dying about an hour later. According to his obituary, he had a cerebrovascular accident. Besides being the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, he died being an acclaimed lawyer, educator, politician, philanthropist, author, and forever seeking world peace.