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Thomas McIntyre ’73

November 3, 2022, in Sheridan, Wyoming, of natural causes.

Renowned as one of America’s great outdoor writers, Thomas was born in Downey, California, and educated by the Jesuits at Loyola High School. Wildly curious and well read, Tom came to Reed. Few things on this mortal coil failed to interest him.

As a writer, he focused on hunting and the outdoors. At age 19, he made his first trip to Africa and developed a lifelong affection for the continent, returning numerous times. He visited every continent in the world with the exception of Antarctica, writing story after story. His stories numbered in the hundreds, gracing the pages of nearly every outdoor magazine imaginable, including Field and Stream, Sports Afield, Petersen’s Hunting, Outdoor Life, Bugle, Garden and Gun, and The Field. He was a contributing editor for both Sports Afield and Field and Stream. Sporting News and Carl Zeiss Optics awarded him prizes for his work.

Tom also wrote prolifically for the screen, creating 750 episodes of outdoor television programs for Orion Entertainment, including Buccaneers and Bones, narrated by Tom Brokaw, and the documentary Wyoming: Predators, Prey, and People for the Wyoming Fish and Game Department. He was probably best known for his books, including Days Afield, The Way of the Hunter, Dreaming the Lion, Seasons and Days, and Augusts in Africa. In 2012, he published his only work of fiction, The Snow Leopard’s Tale, which critics hailed as a minor masterpiece. Shortly before his death, he completed what he considered his magnum opus, Thunder without Rain, a history of the cape buffalo. Five years in the making, it is scheduled for publication in February of 2023.

Possessing both a wicked sense of humor and a generous heart, Tom was more than merely an “outdoor writer.” He possessed knowledge on an astounding range of subjects, able to wax on the vagaries of African big game rifles and then delve into interpretations of a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of film and relished a dry martini (no olives, please) and good food. In his travels, he sampled unorthodox fare, including musk ox bile in Greenland. He is survived by his wife, Elaine; son, Bryan; and brother, Robert.

Appeared in Reed magazine: March 2023

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