Mick Winter
Writer/Community Activist/Web Guy
Mick Winter grew up on the Peninsula and went to college at University of California, Santa Barbara. “After two years, the university and I parted company”, he says. “Something about lack of studying.” He wandered Europe for six months, then spent four years in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, including language school in Monterey, and assignments in Germany and Vietnam. “In Germany we were running agents into the East Bloc. In Vietnam, I advised an undercover Vietnamese Army unit and hung out with the local CIA guys. Since we couldn’t win the war on the outside, we played Risk and drank good Scotch all night.”
He went back to UCSB, redeemed himself, and found himself with a degree in German and a career in advertising in Vancouver, B.C. “Then wanderlust hit me again, and I moved to the Canadian Rockies to write wildlife films. I shared a trailer with a grizzly bear named Willie (who had starred in, assisted by Robert Redford, the movie “Jeremiah Johnson.”) He didn’t snore much but he did pace all night.”
Returning to the States he eventually met his wife Kathryn through a shared interest in meditation with a spiritual school called Arica. They moved from San Francisco to Napa in 1980 and have been in the valley ever since. Kathryn runs Fair Housing Napa Valley and is a former Napa County supervisor. Their daughter Joanna is a grad student at Cornell, studying City and Regional Planning.
In the mid-1980s Mick created something called NapaNet. “In my mind”, he says. “But nobody was ready for the Internet yet. It finally happened in the early 1990s, thanks to local teacher Terry Faherty and the county’s school districts. We started as a non-profit to get schools on the Internet. Then it morphed into a for-profit—but the kids got online.”
Mick remained hooked on the Internet. He has a websitse on the Napa Valley (NapaNow.com—which he started after earlier creating and selling Napa Valley Online) and had an online newspaper—NapaValleyHerald.com—which may return.
These days he’s focused on Peak Oil—the decline of worldwide oil production—and has both a book “Peak Oil Prep” and, of course, a website: DryDipstick.com. His latest books are “The Napa Valley Book” and “Sustainable Living for Home, Neighborhood and Community”. Currently, as a result of a month studying at the University of Havana, he’s writing a book on Cuba—as he tries to type with his cat Sophie on his lap while both listen to his online music station RadioFreeCuba.com.
Writer/Community Activist/Web Guy
Mick Winter grew up on the Peninsula and went to college at University of California, Santa Barbara. “After two years, the university and I parted company”, he says. “Something about lack of studying.” He wandered Europe for six months, then spent four years in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, including language school in Monterey, and assignments in Germany and Vietnam. “In Germany we were running agents into the East Bloc. In Vietnam, I advised an undercover Vietnamese Army unit and hung out with the local CIA guys. Since we couldn’t win the war on the outside, we played Risk and drank good Scotch all night.”
He went back to UCSB, redeemed himself, and found himself with a degree in German and a career in advertising in Vancouver, B.C. “Then wanderlust hit me again, and I moved to the Canadian Rockies to write wildlife films. I shared a trailer with a grizzly bear named Willie (who had starred in, assisted by Robert Redford, the movie “Jeremiah Johnson.”) He didn’t snore much but he did pace all night.”
Returning to the States he eventually met his wife Kathryn through a shared interest in meditation with a spiritual school called Arica. They moved from San Francisco to Napa in 1980 and have been in the valley ever since. Kathryn runs Fair Housing Napa Valley and is a former Napa County supervisor. Their daughter Joanna is a grad student at Cornell, studying City and Regional Planning.
In the mid-1980s Mick created something called NapaNet. “In my mind”, he says. “But nobody was ready for the Internet yet. It finally happened in the early 1990s, thanks to local teacher Terry Faherty and the county’s school districts. We started as a non-profit to get schools on the Internet. Then it morphed into a for-profit—but the kids got online.”
Mick remained hooked on the Internet. He has a websitse on the Napa Valley (NapaNow.com—which he started after earlier creating and selling Napa Valley Online) and had an online newspaper—NapaValleyHerald.com—which may return.
These days he’s focused on Peak Oil—the decline of worldwide oil production—and has both a book “Peak Oil Prep” and, of course, a website: DryDipstick.com. His latest books are “The Napa Valley Book” and “Sustainable Living for Home, Neighborhood and Community”. Currently, as a result of a month studying at the University of Havana, he’s writing a book on Cuba—as he tries to type with his cat Sophie on his lap while both listen to his online music station RadioFreeCuba.com.
