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; 49+ years later, Neil's still rooted in Humboldt County.  He lives in Eureka with his artist wife Judi and their rescued female dog. Of great significance is the fact that when Neil was 31, he managed to quit alcohol and other drugs. He enjoys living sober and being a positive part of the vast worldwide recovery community.

Neil's early jobs included: delivering three different papers; supermarket clerk; unloading freight and U.S. Mail trucks; 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: counseling teens, adults, groups & families with substance abuse problems; teaching addiction counseling, psychology and social work at two colleges;  working in a bookstore; sports writing 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.