has happily tromped through the woods of Maine in search of tales to tell. During those trips, he has learned to judge a journey’s success not on the basis of fish caught or animals shot, but on the basis of memories made, and stories filed away for later use. Holyoke has won numerous writing awards from the Maine Press Association, the Inland Press Association and the New England Associated Press News Executives Association and was honored by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association as Maine’s sportswriter of the year for 1997.Holyoke is an avid fly fisherman, hunter and wildlife watcher who lives in Bangor and spends plenty of time at the family camp on Beech Hill Pond in Otis.

six-year program, Tom worked in the BDN’s composing room and photo-engraving department. In the meantime, he gained international recognition as an artist specializing in sporting scenes. Thus, in 1977 Tom was hired as the BDN’s first in-house illustrator. Not surprisingly, his work appeared regularly on the Sports pages. Additionally, Tom began writing and illustrating short outdoors pieces that appeared randomly on the Sports pages. Shortly thereafter he wrote regular columns for the op-ed page. When the late Bud Leavitt retired in 1988, Tom was named the outdoors writer. He remained at that position until taking an early retirement in 1999. In retrospect, Tom says outdoors writing was an experience that taught him a lot about people and more about himself. As a spokesman for sportsmen, he focused on writing about hunting, fishing, trapping and all the associated activities and defending those symbolic Maine traditions and cultures against the organized attacks of anti-hunting and animal-rights groups. Tom Hennessey has written two books: “Feathers ‘n Fins”, published jointly by The National Sporting Fraternity, Clinton, NJ, and Bangor Publishing Company; and “Handy to Home”, published by Down East Books, Camden, Maine. Living in Hampden with his wife, Nancy, and his English pointer, “Bud”. Tom spends most of his time hunting and fishing, thereby gathering material for paintings and the monthly “Feathers ‘n Fins” pieces he writes and illustrates for the BDN’s Sports section. Otherwise, he says the only problem he has with retirement is that it keeps him too close to the cookie jar.