Bill Roberts:
CLASS OF 1968
Pacific Grove High SchoolClass of 1968
Pacific grove, CA
University of North Carolina - JournalismClass of 1977
Chapel hill, NC
University of California - Letters & ScienceClass of 1972
Davis, CA
University of CaliforniaClass of 1972
Davis, CA
Monterey Peninsula CollegeClass of 1970
Monterey, CA
Bill's Story
Graduated UC-Davis, which included a year studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (71-72). Went to work for Far West Laboratory for Education Research & Development in San Francisco intent on a career in education R&D. Studied for master's degree in education at SF State. Became disillusioned with federal funding process and decided to enter the journalism profession. Completed a master's degree in journalism at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1977) and went to work at the now-defunct Charlotte News in Charlotte, NC. Joined the staff of the Detroit Free Press in 1980 and worked in business news, foreign, national and political news. Directed 1988 presidential campaign coverage for the paper. In the early 1980s I left the Free Press for a brief stint at the International Herald Tribune in Paris, France, but returned to Detroit for reasons too weird to explain. Left Detroit in late 1988 to become executive business editor at the San Jose Mercury News. I contributed to the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the 1989 earthquake. In 1990, I moved to London as regional managing editor for the now-defunct Knight Ridder Financial News Service. Returned to Silicon Valley late 1991 to work for a startup newsletter company, which was soon defunct.
Along the way I was married and divorced, and married and divorced again. No children.
In 1992 I joined the now-defunct Ziff Davis magazine company and worked as an editorial executive at several of its technology magazines. I was Editor of PC Computing when it was the largest monthly PC user magazine in America. I was invited to leave Ziff in 1995.
Having been guilty of insubordination to nearly every boss I ever had, I decided to try freelance writing. I wound up mostly writing about business, technology and management topics for small speciality technology magazines -- many now defunct -- and covered the Internet revolution. With so many defunct publishing enterprises in my 30-year wake I continue to be amazed that I have made a living as a freelance writer for 13 years, and now add some photography to the mix.
My journalism career has all...Expand for more
owed me to travel some, in western Europe and in eastern Europe during the Soviet era. Also southern Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
In 1998 I took up ceramics as a hobby, working with a teacher in Santa Cruz. As a result, and through a set of coincidences too tangled to unravel here, I went to Japan in 1999, and have been returning to Japan every year since. I often go for two or three months at a time. In 2004-05 I spent 14 months in a Shinto religious community outside Kyoto and wrote and photographed a book about their way of life, and especially their practice of the traditional Japanese arts. I am now working on a second book of color photos of this group. When in Japan I usually keep my regular freelance work going thanks to the Internet and the amazing telecommunications we now have.
The NOW photo is me on top of Mt Hachibuse in Japan, May 2008. (The THEN photo is me on Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite, which I climbed Memorial Day weekend 1968. After ten years I quit rock climbing when I moved east in 1975 to begin journalism career.)
When not in Japan, I live with my partner, Toya Erickson, in Prunedale, CA, and a Catahoula leopard dog (you can look it up) named Bella. It's a long way from Paris to Prunedale, I'll tell you. Anyway, she -- Toya, not Bella-- teaches in the Northern Monterey County School district. Toya is the only woman I ever met willing to put up with my peripatetic life path.
I continue to enjoy ceramics, photography, writing poetry, and other arts.
Some of you may recall my talented artistic brother Mike (class of 1970, later known as Max). You might like to know that Max was one of the creators/writers of the popular 1980s kid's TV show, "Pee Wee's Playhouse," and that he died in the AIDS epidemic in 1990.
Some of you may recall my father, Darrell, who taught French and other languages at PGHS for 19 years. He died of cancer in 1997, at age 78. His years at PGHS -- especially the early years coinciding with our class -- were among the happiest of his life.
Let me close with this: I did not set out in life to achieve fame or fortune, and I am pleased to report that I am succeeding.
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