About Me

After 30 some years as a newspaper reporter and columnist, I retired in 2010, (insanely) went back to school and earned my doctorate in journalism at Ohio University, and began teaching journalism full-time as a visiting assistant professor at Miami University. I retired in April of 2018 but continue to write on a freelance basis.

My books include the Rick Decker mystery series, including “Hidden City” (a Mystery Fan Book Club Selection of the Month, 1991); a groundbreaking non-fiction narrative of the U.S. effort to break the German Enigma codes during World War II, “The Secret in Building 26”; and an expose of the media’s coverage of the JFK assassination that grew out of my dissertation, “See No Evil.”

I’ve worked as a medical writer (Cincinnati Post, St. Petersburg Times), an education reporter and feature writer (Dayton Daily News), a film critic (Cincinnati Enquirer), and, for the last 15 years of my newspaper career, as an enterprise and investigative reporter at the Dayton Daily News. There I also wrote a biweekly humor and advice column on single parenting (“Mr. Mom”) and a popular series of annual Christmas short stories.

I’ve won numerous journalism awards, including a National Press Club Award (2000), Best Reporter (2001, Ohio SPJ), Best Columnist (2006, Ohio SPJ; 2007, Ohio AP), the Joseph L. Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting on Military Affairs (2005), Second Place for Feature Writing (1994, National Education Association), and Best Critic (1989, Cincinnati Magazine). 

In retirement, I’ve volunteered to teach English as a Second Language to immigrants in the Cincinnati and Indianapolis areas and overseas to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

I live in Indianapolis with my partner — poet and translator Karen Kovacik.