In 1982, with his wife and some friends, he founded an organization called Love Is Feeding Everyone, which fed more than 100,000 people in Los Angeles each week. In 1993, he and his wife founded a nonprofit group called the Institute of Ecolonomics — a word Mr. Weaver coined from combining ecology and economics — to find solutions to environmental problems.

The college also is attracting more students because of programs that are job-related. For example, it recently added cosmetology and "ecolonomics," a combination of ecology and economics.

With homespun homilies and sweet-souled characters, Dennis Weaver captured the viewing audience of the '60s, '70s and early '80s. Now he seeks to appeal to the business community in a similar way.

"I have a word for the marriage of our economy and our environmental concerns," he says. "I call it ecolonomics.

"We talk about drugs, the deficit, homelessness, what have you, but if we don't have a place to live in, all of the other issues are really meaningless. The environment is the most important issue, and we must cooperate."