Jeff Zurschmeide
My name is Jeff Zurschmeide and I'm 41 years old. I am a freelance
writer. I write a weekly column called "Start Your Engines" in the
Portland Tribune newspaper and I write for magazines as well.
Before that, my career was technical writing and technical training. I
worked for the Santa Cruz Operation in the 80s, then Silicon Graphics in the
90s, and I've been a freelancer since about 2001. UNIX System Administration
was my specialty. I don't like to talk about that any more.
I graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz in 1985 with a degree in U.S. History. Gota question
about the Articles of Confederation or the Battle of Chancellorsville?
I'm your man. My focus was on the period of the formation of the
I'm in the MST program because, frankly, motorsports
journalism will never pay a living wage unless I luck into being editor of Road
& Track or something, and I don't want to go back to writing user
manuals. I hope to put my education and habits to some use doing
management publications. There aren't many who do that.
My other interests include motorsports (that's what I
write about), live theater, history, and really cheap pulp science fiction
novels of the 40s and 50s. Captain Future meets the Zorgons
of Venus, that kinda stuff.
I have driven race cars in SCCA since 1991 and local NASCAR tracks since 1988.
Currently, I co-drive in a Performance Rally car. That means I sit in the
passenger seat and read a book to tell the driver what's coming up around the
corner while we bomb down logging roads at high rates of speed.
If you think it takes nerve and courage to drive fast, try sitting in the silly
seat reading a book while someone else drives fast. A certain lack of imagination
is a necessity.
I'm married. My wife's name is Jill, and she's a freelance editor. Together, we
make up Falstaff Publications. We have a daughter who is 11, and in the fifth
grade at Byrom Elementary in Tualatin.
You can reach me at 503-638-7300 (home/ofc) or
j.zursch@verizon.net