About the Author

Bill Thomas was born in 1927 in Washington, DC, and attended Princeton and the University of Wisconsin, obtaining a PhD in Chemical Engineering. He retired from the DuPont Co. in 1989 from their X-ray film plant in Cedar Mountain, NC. Among his actvities since the Horsepasture experience have been chairmanship of the NC Chapter of the Sierra Club, member of the NC Governor's Western Environmental Council, co-founder of the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, co-chair of the national Sierra Club's National Forest Subcommittee, Treasurer of Friends of the Falls (promoting purchase of the Anthony inholding in DuPont State Forest), Sierra Club's point man on formation of Gorges State Park, recipient of NC's Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and Board member of the Carolina Mountains Land Conservancy. He lives with his wife, Shirl, in Cedar Mountain and is an active outdoorsman, birder and photographer, serving as Conservation Chair of the Pisgah Group of the Sierra Club, and on the Citizens Advisory Committee for Gorges State Park.