About Mark Torinus

Author Mark E. Torinus was born in Wisconsin and has lived his life close to water, dogs, fly fishing and hunting. He logged his first duck hunting trip to Saskatchewan, Canada at the age of 12 and has been back more than 30 times.

The author's life in Wisconsin has been interrupted only by a four-year detour to Hanover, New Hampshire to attend Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1975, and an 11-year sojourn to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to start a newspaper career. Torinus later became editor of The Janesville Gazette, a midsize newspaper in south central Wisconsin, at the culmination of a 16-year run in journalism.

Torinus moved to the nonprofit industry, with a brief stay at United Way, before in 1996 becoming president of the Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges, Inc., where he remains today. The Foundation serves the 20 private colleges of Wisconsin.

The author, 55, is married to Maryclaire Torinus, a Green Bay, Wisconsin girl he met in the fifth grade. The couple has three grown children: Nathan, Sarah and Anne. Nate now lives in Wisconsin and has become a regular on the annual northern migration to hunt ducks in Saskatchewan. The two girls are vegetarians. Nate and his wife Cynthia have a son James, who will be old enough to consider joining the trip in 10 years.