William Dietrich is an American novelist, non-fiction writer, journalist, and college professor. His historical novels and thrillers have made bestseller lists and his Ethan Gage series, set during the Napoleonic wars, have sold in 28 languages. He has also written novels set in the Roman Empire, Antarctica, and Australia. His non-fiction works are natural history and environmental history of the Pacific Northwest. Dietrich was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, and attended Fairhaven College at Western Washington University, graduating with a degree in journalism. He worked for several Pacific Northwest newspapers and Gannett News Service. While at The Seattle Times, he covered the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and shared the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with three other Times journalists. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and won National Science Foundation fellowships to Antarctica in 1994 and 1996. He reported extensively on science and the environment. His first book, The Final Forest, depicted the old growth and spotted owl battle in Forks, Washington. The book won the Washington Governor Writer's Award and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. [More at Wikipedia]

September 29th, 1951 in Washington (Age 73)