Jon Turk

Fernie, B.C.
Jon grew up on the shores of a wooded lake in Connecticut, attended Phillips Academy, Andover and then Brown University. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Colorado, in 1971. The same year, in honor of Earth Day 1, he co-authored the first environmental science textbook in the United States. It sold 100,000 copies and speaheaded the development of environmental science curricula in North America.

At the same time, hounded by restless spirits, Jon began wandering the globe, visiting people and places that were so far from his childhood upbringing. Over the decades, he has kayaked across the North Pacific and around Cape Horn, mountain biked through the Gobi desert, made first climbing ascents of big walls on Baffin Island, and first ski descents in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzia.

As described in his most recent book, The Raven's Gift, Jon also experienced a spiritual journey through his deep friendship with Moolynaut, a healer and shaman in the small village of Vyenka. Her great and enduring lesson is that the tundra, and all the wild spaces of our planet, provide the foundation for spiritual healing and physical well being. Thus science and humanism coalesce.

Buy Jon's books from the School Store:
The Raven's Gift
In the Wake of the Jomon