Joe A. Moreland

@joea.moreland

About

Born in Hermiston, Oregon in1943, Joe A. Moreland spent most of his childhood years living in and aroundthe Coast Range of Western Oregon. He attended Oregon State University andearned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1965. After graduating, hewas employed as a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He conductedgroundwater investigations in California and Idaho and served as a supervisoryhydrologist in Idaho and Montana. In 1995, he was selected to serve as theChief of the Ground Water Research Project in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UnitedArab Emirates--a cooperative program between the U.S. Geological Survey and theNational Drilling Company of Abu Dhabi. He retired in 1999 and moved to Orange,California with his wife Kay.

For the last 12 years, Joe hasdevoted his free time to civic enterprises including serving as an enumeratorfor the Census Bureau for the 2000 and 2010 censuses, volunteering as a pollworker in 17 local, state, and federal elections, serving on the 2003-2004Orange County Grand Jury, and serving as the President of the Grand JurorsAssociation of Orange County in 2010-2011.

Although the author publishedmore than 35 scientific and technical reports during his career, this book ishis first serious attempt at Creative Nonfiction writing. He has 4 children, 2step-children, and 10 grandchildren who he hopes will enjoy the tales he tellsof his brothers and him living on the rough fringes of society whereelectricity and running water were conveniences not available to those wholived at the end of the road in the late 1940s and 1950s.