Biographies are written from a third person perspective, but it makes me uncomfortable to think that while I constructed this website, I should offer my personal history as if it were written by someone else. Since I write everything else from the third person, it feels appropriate to put myself into my own story.
Liberated Spirits: Two Women Who Battled Over Prohibition is my first book, though I never intended for it to be. In 2011, my dear friend Hugh Ambrose asked me to conduct research for the book and secure additional researchers, as needed. Over the course of four years, I performed that duty with diligence, conferring with Hugh almost daily. His unexpected death in May 2015 left a book partially completed and a strong desire from his widow, Andrea, to see it completed. The journey to publication has been fraught with numerous hurdles, but the strength and singularity of the story prevailed. I think Hugh would be proud of what we both achieved.
Though my resume prior to Liberated Spirits included no other published works, I worked for more than 20 years as a professional historian researching and writing on a wide variety of historical subjects, making a name for being able to find the most obscure or hidden pieces of information. I conducted research in hundreds of libraries, archives, and government offices, producing reports ranging from a few pages to book-length manuscripts. In those years, I had the privilege of working for some of the largest companies in the world and the smallest Native communities in the country. The documents and reports I compiled were used to assess the condition of historic properties, guide natural resource management decisions, uncover complex corporate connections, prepare expert court testimony, and advance cleanup of environmentally-impacted sites.
I was raised in California and South Dakota before receiving history degrees from Montana State University (B.A.) and the University of Montana (M.A.), which might suggest divided loyalties, but I will forever and exclusively be a Bobcat (that’s Montana State, folks). I am fortunate to live in Colorado with my wife, Mary, and our three children, Aidan, Cara, and Tanian.