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50 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z G I O R D A N O GIORDANO ROY STEPHEN JR., [STEVE] Dinner break during an SATW board meeting in Quebec City, 2013. FAMI LY 4 Wife, Lynn Rosen 4 Daughter, Lori ADDRESS 4 217 Bayside Rd. Bellingham WA 98225-7700 CONTACT 360 733-0249 or 360 223-2391 rsgiordano@gmail.com S O M E O N E S A I D T O me the other day, “Jeez, you sure lead a charmed life!”That really took me aback be- cause I hadn’t thought of my life in those terms.What I DO think about is saying “Yes!” to every opportu- nity. I learned to do that as a free- lance writer working with a variety of editors. They would ask for this or that, like once I was asked on a Monday to interview and write sto- ries about twelve 4-H kids in the county fair and to turn in the sto- ries by Thursday. I gulped and said, “Yes—of course.” Then, as usual, I had to figure out how to do it.With that attitude I became a ten-year overnight success, and it continues to work for me. Before this last twenty or so years of writing began, I banged away at several other occupations: • High school English teacher • High school special ed teacher • Animation cameraman for an educational film company • TV public affairs and news production • Special ed teacher again after getting a master’s at Western Washington University. In that program, all my “papers” were films, including my thesis, since I was still working at the local TV station.My hope was that federal funding would come through for gifted programs as it did for regular special ed, but it never did. I was a good autism specialist, but to what avail. I still feel that if money for gifted students matched other fund- ing, the world could change for the better in two generations. Alas. So I took a piece of writing to a friend who was editorial page editor of the local paper. I explained that if he thought I should keep my day job, to please tell me, but instead, he said, “I’ve been looking for a new community columnist; would you like this to be your first column?”As a not very big inducement,he added, “It’ll earn you $25...” Soon enough I was freelancing all over the paper, selling to mag- azines and writing travel books. I joined the Society of American Travel Writers (1,000 members) and worked my way up in officer- dom until last year I was president. I don’t recommend it but I learned a lot about people.The annual conven- tion last year was in Iceland and I got to pick the keynote speaker:Antioch alumnus Isaac (Harry) Sobol. Wife 1.0, Nancy Giordano, and I divorced long enough ago that Wife 2.0, Lynn Rosen, and I just cel- ebrated our 40th anniversary. Nancy lives but 12 miles out in the county and we still celebrate some holidays as a family.Our daughter Lori lives in the area and she’s pretty generous of her time with us. As a writer, it’s hard to sepa- rate personal and professional life because everything is “copy.” For example we took up skiing, then I joined the Mt. Baker Ski Patrol for fun, personal development and as a means for the family to ski cheaply. But then after a few years I secured the weekly ski columnist position on the local paper. While it was a seasonal column for ten years, the season here is six months. And of course travel is our main recreation/occupation these days. I mainly specialize in the Pacific Northwest and Canada, but we har- vest some good stories from most parts of the continent. My curiosity leads me to aboriginal cultures in re- cent years, the most exciting being the Maori of northern New Zealand and Eastern Islanders. Some articles and a book may be in the works. Victories for humanity? Still trying. My say-so about the Iceland travel writers convention was a test of enlarging the vision of how we can think about and experience cul- tures new to us. That’s a challenge when you’re there for just one to three weeks, but I’m happy with the caliber of stories currently appear- ing about Iceland by our members.