Bruce Whitehill:  

Here is a quick but extended summary of the last 46 years (as of 2009): A year with VISTA in Merced, California, followed by a second year program studying for an MSW at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Maryland, while doing VISTA work for the field work requirements; disillusioned with things in the U.S. (1969), I left the program and the country and began what turned out to be a seven-year trip around the world. (*My journeys and unusual jobs are at the end of this biography.) I avoided the draft (I had a student deferment before leaving the U.S.) and was sitting on the steps of the American Express office in Paris along with a lot of other expatriates as someone read out the numbers of the first draft lottery; I got a very high number and knew I would not be called up for military service. I was gone during all of the Nixon regime (I sat on Green Island off Australia when a small group of us listened to the live broadcast of his resignation) and returned to the U.S. (working my way home on a freighter from Japan) in time for the American bicentennial, which I spent in Mexico while studying Spanish and cross-cultural courses through the U. of Arizona Extension Dept. After three months, I made my way up the west coast and wound up in San Francisco, where eventually I took (and finished) all my courses in a special MA program, Cross-cultural Communication. While at SFSU, I also studied TV broadcasting (just for fun). I became interested in antiques and, especially, old games. Eventually I formed a group for collectors of old games, and shortly thereafter got a job as a game developer for Milton Bradley Co. in Springfield, MA. (There was a two-year period in between California and Massachusetts when I was the New York State Regional Director for B'Nai Brith, working out of a NYC office and covering upstate NY.) I invented a few games and worked on many others until Bradley was bought out by Hasbro and I was laid off. Over the next decades I worked full time (for a short time) for Pressman and Mattel (back in California) and as a consultant, rules writer, and question writer for a myriad of other game companies; I wrote most of the questions for 'The Know-It-All Edition' of Trivial Pursuit and was responsible for the team that handled the writing project. I have been an associate editor, senior editor, and contributing editor for three different games magazines, and have written two game books, "Games: American Games & Their Makers" and "Americanopoly: America as Seen Through Its Games"; if you google either the titles or "games bruce whitehill" you'll get a good picture of my life in the games world. Eventually I wound up in Rochester, New York (because I really liked the city and area from my B'nai Brith days) and built up a mystery dinner theater company that I had started in Massachusetts. A publisher who heard about my company ("The Mystery Game") commissioned me to write one of the Hardy Boys novels (Casefile #17, "The Number File"). After 10 years in Rochester (I had never been more than 2 years in the same place!), I moved to Rhode Island, a place I never really connected with. My games research took me to conferences in different countries in Europe. At one in Germany, I met Sybille, a woman who was also a researcher (we both gave talks at the seminar) and a game player. After some visits back and forth (and a desire to leave Bush's America), I moved to Germany in mid 2005, and in December 2007, Sybille and I got married (a first for me, as I was always moving around too much and never had the desire to raise a family). We then had another (unofficial) ceremony in the U.S. for friends, with Stuart Gitlin as my best man -- Stu and I have stayed friends all this time (since grade school, actually). In Europe, I continue working as an author and journalist and as a game consultant and inventor. Two of my games were published here in 2008: "Change Horses," a family game in which the horse that comes in last wins, and a three-player strategy game called "Three" ("Drei" in Germany), which has just been re-released by another company as "Talat," not yet available in the U.S. Sybille and I have a large apartment in a tiny village north of Hanover. There are about 770 people in this 770-year-old village, 150 of whom live in the old section where we are; our landlord, a long time resident here, still has a phone number of just 3 digits! If you're a class of '63 Clarkite visiting Germany, come stay with us -- the guest room is the games room and overlooks acres of fields and meadows. Sybille is in IT and works 4 days a week in Hamburg (the same job she has had for over 25 years); we have a small apartment there and love the city, going to English theater, lots of English-language films, and plenty of concerts, opera, ballet, variety shows, and exhibitions every year. Sybille and I offer a translation service, mostly for game companies, and just published a photo guidebook of the region we live in. (Photography, by the way, is my main hobby, aside from games and travel.) I'm in Germany to stay, with trips to the U.S. when we can afford it. My mystery company is still operating in Rochester, and I'm thinking of starting one here in Germany (in English). I'm taking lots of photographs and we're planning our next guidebook and maybe additional calendars (we published about 3 so far). Meanwhile, I am still writing, researching, inventing games, and, of course, traveling. --Bruce *I traveled through Europe, North and East Africa, and Southeast Asia and lived in Spain, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. I went across Japan and from Melbourne, Australia, to Cairns and then to Alice Springs on a small motorcycle (250cc). I did lots of different kinds of work, including (in approximate chronological order) working as a singing host on boat-and-beach excur...Expand for more