Draft:Rick Antonson

Richard Alvin Antonson (born August 12, 1949) is a Canadian author of books on travel and history. He is also a former publishing executive, and was President & CEO of Tourism Vancouver from 1993 to 2014. He has been described as “an evocative and perceptive travel writer.”

Personal Life
Antonson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Elsie Elizabeth Cristobel (née Bailey) and Alvin Antonson. He has two children with his first wife, Wendy (née Lyons, div. 1995), Brent Antonson and Sean Antonson. He married his current wife, Janice Antonson (Sapergia, née Beverage) in 1999. He has lived in Australia and Germany and now lives in Predator Ridge, British Columbia.

Antonson attended Burnaby South High School where he graduated as valedictorian in 1967, and then attended Simon Fraser University (1967 to 1969). He has an Honourary Doctorate from Capilano University.

Writing
Antonson is the author or co-author of eight non-fiction books focusing on travel and history. His first book, In Search of a Legend: Slumach's Gold: The Search for the Slumach-Lost Creek Gold Mine was written with Mary Trainer and his brother, Brian Antonson, and published under the imprint ISOAL in 1972, which later became Nunaga Publishing, co-founded by the three authors. A revised and expanded 35th anniversary edition was published in 2007. The book was included in The Essentials: 150 Great BC Books & Authors.

Following this, The Fraser Valley was published by Whitecap in 1981 with photographs by Bob Herger.

Antonson’s first travel book, To Timbuktu for a Haircut; A Journey Through West Africa (Dundurn, 2008; Skyhorse 2013) was referred to by the Chicago Tribune as “Rick Antonson’s classic travel memoir”. His second book, Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America's Main Street (Dundurn, 2012; Skyhorse 2012) follows Antonson’s road trip with his friend Peter Armstrong, travelling between Chicago and Los Angeles seeking the remaining sections of the original Route 66 highway. In a round up of books for the holidays, the New York Times Book Review called it, “one of the best books of the bunch.” Along with playwright Shawn Macdonald, Antonson is currently working on a musical based on his book.

Other books include Full Moon Over Noah's Ark: An Odyssey to Mount Ararat and Beyond (Skyhorse, 2016), and Walking with Ghosts in Papua New Guinea: Crossing the Kokoda Trail in the Last Wild Place on Earth (Skyhorse, 2019). Antonson also co-authored Whistle Posts West: Railway Tales from British Columbia, Alberta, and Yukon (Heritage House, 2015) with Mary Trainer and Brian Antonson.

Antonson’s most recent book is Train Beyond The Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer (Greystone, 2023) which is based around a trip he took on the Rocky Mountaineer train in British Columbia and Alberta with his grandson, Riley, who was 10 years old at the time. In a review in the Weekend Australian it was described as “an excellent blend of personal travel narrative and backstory.”

Career
Antonson’s professional career was split between tourism and the publishing industries. He left university to work at the Greater Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau in 1969, before moving into publishing where he co-founded Nunaga Publishing (later briefly named Antonson Publishing). Nunaga was eventually bought by Douglas & McIntyre (Lee, 2013), where Antonson became Vice-President and general manager for five years.

After leaving Douglas & McIntyre, Antonson moved into the tourism industry, holding positions with Edmonton Tourism and Rocky Mountaineer, before moving back to the Greater Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau (by then called Tourism Vancouver) where he was President & CEO from 1993 to 2014. During his time with Tourism Vancouver, Antonson played a pivotal role in the campaign to bring the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to Vancouver.

Antonson is an established public speaker who talks on cathedral thinking.