About Neil Tarpey

Neil hails from New York City (Queens & Manhattan). At 25, he swapped his sound system for a brother's Oldsmobile Cutlass, and left NYC on the morning of winter's first snowstorm. He had Guinness, his Irish setter, and they drove 11,000 miles across the USA. He stopped on Northern California's redwood coast for a weekend visit with a boyhood friend from his block in NYC. It's been a long weekend; 47 years later, Neil's still rooted in Humboldt County.  He lives in Eureka with his artist wife Judi and their old rescued tripawd pit bull. Of significance is the fact that when Neil was 31, he quit alcohol and other drugs. He enjoys living sober and being part of the vast worldwide recovery community.

Neil's early jobs included: delivering three different newspapers; supermarket clerk; unloading freight trucks; delivering the US mail; an epoxy impregnator in a factory; supervising a mailroom & stockroom; umpiring adult baseball & softball games, including state and national champions; account clerk. Later, he worked a combined 41 years as: a counselor for teens, adults, groups & families with substance abuse problems; an instructor in addiction studies, psychology and social work at two colleges;  a bookstore clerk; a sports writer for daily and weekly newspapers. Neil earned two M.A. degrees--in Teaching Writing, and in Counseling Psychology--from Humboldt State University in northern California, and a B.A. in English from St. Bonaventure University in western New York.