Oregon Trail (Buck)

Author Bio
• Birth—December 29, 1950
• Where—Morristown, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., Bowdoin College
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in northwest Connecticut


Rinker Buck is an award-winning American author who first became known as the author of a 1997 memoir Flight of Passage. His second book, The Oregan Trail, based on his trip with is brother in a covered wagon along the famous trail, was released in 2015.

Early life
Rinker Buck was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey, the fourth child of Mary Patricia Buck (nee Kernahan) and political activist and Look Magazine publisher Thomas Francis Buck. He has five brothers and five sisters.

Flight
In the winter of 1965/1966, Rinker, then only15, and his older brother Kernahan, 17, a licensed pilot, devised a plan to rebuild their father's 1948 Piper PA-11 and fly it from Somerset Hills Airport (N64) in Basking Ridge, NJ to Capistrano Airport (L38) in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Their journey took six days and was completed in July 1966. The flight is the subject of Buck's 1997 memoir Flight of Passage.

Journalism
Buck began his career in journalism shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. His first job was writing for the Berkshire Eagle in 1973. He then served as reporter for New York, Life, Hartford Courant, Adweek and several other national publications.

Awards
Buck is the recipient of three awards: Eugene S. Pulliam Journalism Writing Award; Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award; and the Max Kurant Award for Excellence in Aviation Coverage (AOPA). (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/20/2015.)