User:Jonwme/sandbox

Jon Wilson (born November 1, 1945, in Providence, RI) is a magazine publisher (WoodenBoat Publications, Inc.), a writer, a facilitator of victim-centered victim offender dialogues (VODs) in crimes of severe violence, and a trainer of Victim-Centered VOD facilitators.

Early life

Jon Wilson grew up in Kingston, RI and on Wheeler's Island in the Thimble Islands of Stony Creek, CT. The youngest of the three children of Dr. Lee C. Wilson, a professor of English, and Virginia (Wheeler) Wilson, an academic secretary, he pursued an undistinguished educational path through high school, and then a very brief stint at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where his father had taught and his mother had worked. URI had been his playground growing up and, thanks to the generous attention of some members of Theta Chi fraternity across the street from his home, he became an "honorary pledge" at about age 9. By then his parents had been divorced for a few years, and the indirect "mentoring" these fraternity brothers provided filled a gap that would otherwise have widened considerably, as he grew up.

Jon was almost eleven when his father died at 49, a result of pneumonia complicated by cirrhosis of the liver resulting from chronic alcoholism. At that point his mother suffered her second major nervous breakdown, for which she was institutionalized for a number of months at the State Institution at Howard, RI. Other mentors began to provide support, and Jon soon found himself working at Evans' Market in Kingston, a small grocery store owned by Charlie "Doc" Evans, a successful man of humble roots who was given to extraordinary generosity. It was under Charlie Evans' tutelage that Jon first learned how satisfying work could be, and how valuable customer relations are in business. Moving from stock clerk to cashier, Jon was then taught to be a retail butcher during his mid-teens.

In the Thimble Islands, Jon took every boyhood chance he could to serve as deckhand aboard the ferry VOLSUNGA, ably run by Capt. Dick Howd, a gifted boat handler and story teller. During his high school years, Jon also worked for Bill Schmid at Ram Point Marina in Wakefield, RI, where his passion for boat yard work took serious root. But it was not until he dropped out of URI and went to work for Jack Jacques at Dutch Wharf Boat Yard in Branford, CT that Jon truly found his calling, among the wooden boats and yachts that the Yard cared for and repaired. And it was there that Jon began to "study" the design and construction of these boats and yachts, under the tutelage not only of Jack Jacques, but of John Lunde, Jim Curry, Stu Bishop, and Bruce Burge - all gifted artisans, and all very generous with their time and their knowledge. Though he wrestled with the sense of failure of having given up on college, Jon was thoroughly at home around and aboard wooden boats and yachts, and he took to this as his true education.

Careers

Following his years at Dutch Wharf, Jon moved with his first wife, Susan Garfield, to Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, in Penobscot Bay, Maine. Working for two years as a boat carpenter, he managed the care and maintenance of the fleet of boats, and spent the winter of 1970/71 on the island with a crew of two, rebuilding four of the thirty-foot open Pulling Boats used by the School on sailing/rowing expeditions by students.

Caught by the pull of the Maine Coast, Jon and his wife and their infant son, Christian, moved to Pembroke, ME, not far from Eastport. There they built a boat shop with an attached apartment, hoping to mix small boat building and back-to-the-land homesteading.

Boat building

In 1971, inspired by numerous wooden boat and yacht designers and builders, Jon planned on developing a business in traditional small craft for oar and sail, and he built a few small boats based on proven traditional working designs for friends of his. At this time, the market for wooden boats was limited and diminishing, and the path to success wasn't as clear as it could have been. As the marketing of fiberglass boats promised almost effortless ownership, and the skills involved in building and maintaining wooden boats and yachts grew less prevalent, Jon began to think about ways of slowing the extinction process down, and decided to publish a newsletter for boat- and yacht-builders. Thinking that a broader "conversation" among professionals would elevate expertise and commitment, he soon realized that a better strategy would be to consider starting a consumer magazine.

Publishing

WoodenBoat magazine (1974-)

Professional BoatBuilder magazine (1989-)

Hope magazine (1995-2003)

Maritime Life & Traditions magazine (????-????)

Victim-Centered Victim Offender Dialogue (VOD) Facilitation

Victim Offender Dialogues provide a means through which victims and survivors of violent crimes and violations are enabled to talk about the impacts and effects of the crimes with the incarcerated offenders in their cases. He conducts this work through the auspices of JUST Alternatives, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Victim-Centered VOD Facilitator Training

The Accountability Project

The Maine State Prison Board of Visitors

Personal life

References

Bibliography

External links