BIOGRAPHY OF THOM HATCH
Mayflower descendant Thom Hatch was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and grew up on Grand Island, New York, just a few miles from the famous Niagara Falls, where he was a skilled baseball shortstop, a tricky pond hockey center iceman, and loved to tramp through the woods and fish in the river. He moved away prior to his senior year of high school to North Olmsted, Ohio, and after graduation enlisted at age 17 in the United States Marine Corps. His service included a 13-month tour of duty in the Republic of South Vietnam—an experience that allows him to better understand those gunshots fired with bad intentions found in the pages of history.
Following his honorable discharge from the service, Thom became a columnist for a newspaper in Pennsylvania, and worked as a radio newsman and disc jockey during the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a brief stop in Memphis, Tennessee, he moved to Colorado in 1975, where he was held hostage by the creative side of the advertising community until finally escaping to fulfill his lifelong dream of writing books.
As an independent historian and author, Thom has produced a broad range of publications—both popular and scholarly—focusing largely on American history, the American West in particular. He presently writes books, and contributes to national publications, including American Heritage, True West, Wild West, Western Horseman, Civil War Times, and Columbiad: A Quarterly Review of the War Between the States, as well as regional and national newspapers.
Thom is a proud active member of the Western Writers of America and the Pikes Peak Posse of Westerners, among other historical organizations.
Thom has served as primary consultant and on-screen expert commentator for numerous documentaries on the History Channel, PBS, the Discovery Channel, and AHC (American Heroes Channel), in addition to consulting for a world-wide motion picture company. A primetime special on the PBS highly-rated “American Experience” was based on his book The Last Outlaws. He has participated in countless radio interviews, and speaking engagements, both in person and by Skype, for colleges, seminars, and historical and service organizations. He has also written museum boards for facilities in Wyoming and Montana pertaining to the Plains Indian Wars. In addition to the above endeavors, he has taught public school as well as private professional writing courses.
In 2005, Black Kettle: the Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War was the recipient of a Spur Award for literary excellence from the Western Writers of America. Several other books of his have been finalists for various national awards, and three of his books have been History Book Club primary selections.
Thom regards himself as an avid outdoorsman and has climbed several 14,000+ foot peaks and backpacked, kayaked, and hiked extensively throughout the Rocky Mountain West and the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. He has earned an end-to-end patch for hiking the difficult 132-mile Adirondack Northville-Placid Trail. In addition, he is an amateur paleontologist and has visited active archeological dig sites in remote areas of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado.
To add authenticity to his Western writing, Thom is proud of the fact that he has stepped away from his computer on enough occasions over the years to earn his spurs as a cowboy with day work at neighboring cattle ranches.
He resides with his award-winning artist wife, Lynn, his brilliant daughter, Cimarron, and their faithful border collie, Emily, in Colorado horse and cattle country, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.
Mayflower descendant Thom Hatch was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and grew up on Grand Island, New York, just a few miles from the famous Niagara Falls, where he was a skilled baseball shortstop, a tricky pond hockey center iceman, and loved to tramp through the woods and fish in the river. He moved away prior to his senior year of high school to North Olmsted, Ohio, and after graduation enlisted at age 17 in the United States Marine Corps. His service included a 13-month tour of duty in the Republic of South Vietnam—an experience that allows him to better understand those gunshots fired with bad intentions found in the pages of history.
Following his honorable discharge from the service, Thom became a columnist for a newspaper in Pennsylvania, and worked as a radio newsman and disc jockey during the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a brief stop in Memphis, Tennessee, he moved to Colorado in 1975, where he was held hostage by the creative side of the advertising community until finally escaping to fulfill his lifelong dream of writing books.
As an independent historian and author, Thom has produced a broad range of publications—both popular and scholarly—focusing largely on American history, the American West in particular. He presently writes books, and contributes to national publications, including American Heritage, True West, Wild West, Western Horseman, Civil War Times, and Columbiad: A Quarterly Review of the War Between the States, as well as regional and national newspapers.
Thom is a proud active member of the Western Writers of America and the Pikes Peak Posse of Westerners, among other historical organizations.
Thom has served as primary consultant and on-screen expert commentator for numerous documentaries on the History Channel, PBS, the Discovery Channel, and AHC (American Heroes Channel), in addition to consulting for a world-wide motion picture company. A primetime special on the PBS highly-rated “American Experience” was based on his book The Last Outlaws. He has participated in countless radio interviews, and speaking engagements, both in person and by Skype, for colleges, seminars, and historical and service organizations. He has also written museum boards for facilities in Wyoming and Montana pertaining to the Plains Indian Wars. In addition to the above endeavors, he has taught public school as well as private professional writing courses.
In 2005, Black Kettle: the Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace But Found War was the recipient of a Spur Award for literary excellence from the Western Writers of America. Several other books of his have been finalists for various national awards, and three of his books have been History Book Club primary selections.
Thom regards himself as an avid outdoorsman and has climbed several 14,000+ foot peaks and backpacked, kayaked, and hiked extensively throughout the Rocky Mountain West and the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. He has earned an end-to-end patch for hiking the difficult 132-mile Adirondack Northville-Placid Trail. In addition, he is an amateur paleontologist and has visited active archeological dig sites in remote areas of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado.
To add authenticity to his Western writing, Thom is proud of the fact that he has stepped away from his computer on enough occasions over the years to earn his spurs as a cowboy with day work at neighboring cattle ranches.
He resides with his award-winning artist wife, Lynn, his brilliant daughter, Cimarron, and their faithful border collie, Emily, in Colorado horse and cattle country, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.
A Favorite Quote:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” —Theodore Roosevelt
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” —Theodore Roosevelt