Tom Stienstra (born 1954 or 1955) is an American author, outdoorsman and columnist for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

''. He produces a radio feature for KCBS in San Francisco, and hosted and co-produced a television special for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

on the

Tuolumne River The Tuolumne River ( Yokutsan: ''Tawalimnu'') flows for through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Originating at over above sea level in Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne ...

. He has written several

guide book A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

s for California, the Pacific Northwest and America. He has won several awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

Early life

Stienstra grew up in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

, California, where he graduated from

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

in 1972. He received his degree in journalism from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

Career

Stienstra published his first story at age 8, "Searching for a Lost Friend", in the ''Palo Alto Times''. After earning his degree, he became a sports reporter there. In 1979, when the ''Palo Alto Times'' merged with the ''Redwood City Tribune'' and became the ''

Peninsula Times Tribune The ''Peninsula Times Tribune'' was a daily newspaper serving Palo Alto, Redwood City, and neighboring cities in the San Francisco Peninsula of California. It was published by the Tribune Newspaper Company from 1979 to 1993. History The ''Times ...

'', he was promoted to sports columnist. In 1980, he was hired to write about the outdoors for the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'', which at the time operated jointly with the ''Chronicle''. Since 2000, he has produced and broadcast a radio feature for KCBS in San Francisco, and appears frequently as a live guest expert. He hosted the TV show ''The Great Outdoors'' for CBS-CW networks and in 2017 hosted and co-produced with Jim Schlosser a national

special, ''The Mighty T -- The Tuolumne River, from Glacier to Golden Gate''.

Books

Stienstra has written many books, including many No. 1 bestsellers in their categories. Among them, ''Moon California Camping'' was released in its 22th edition in spring 2022, and ''Moon Pacific Northwest Camping,'' was listed in the ''

Portland Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Th ...

'' as a No. 1 bestseller. In 2012 he published a novel, ''The Sweet Redemption, An Inspector Korg Mystery''.

Awards

Stienstra's film on the Tuolumne won the 2017 Northern California Area

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Health / Science / Environmental Special. In 2022, his book ''52 Weekend Adventures'' was awarded second place as best outdoor book of the year by the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA). Stienstra is one of the OWAA's most awarded members. In 2015, he became the first four-time winner of its President's Award as "Best of the Best", when he won best story of the year in the Newspaper/Website division. The winning entry was "Paddling with giants", published in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' on August 5, 2014. To become a finalist for the President's Award, that story won first place in the Outdoor Fun and Adventure Category of the Newspaper/Website Contest. In 2017, when he won the President's Award for best outdoors television show for his PBS special on the Tuolumne, he was the only member to win simultaneous first-place awards in newspaper, radio and television. In 2018, he won 1st Place, Outdoor Recreation Photo of the Year for "A world apart on the marsh". He won the association's highest award, the Enduring Excellence Award, in 2021, the first writer from California to do so. Stienstra was the fourth living member inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Stienstra survived a hatchet attack when he was 21, which gave him insights into

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...

as well as the healing and fulfillment of being in the outdoors. In 2015, he married Denese Stienstra, with whom he has two stepsons; they live in

Siskiyou County Siskiyou County (, ) is a county in the northernmost part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076. Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta. It falls within the Cascadia bioregion ...

. In August 2021 he was diagnosed with

metastasized Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

and underwent brain surgery.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stienstra, Tom American male writers 1950s births Living people San Jose State University alumni