Ron Semple is the author of the new novel, "Her Morning Shadow" which was published by Top Hat Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing, Ltd. This historical novel centers on a young immigrant and his cobbled together family in Jersey City as he and they cope with World War I and its chaotic aftermath. While this is a stand-alone novel, it does follow memorable characters from his earlier book, "Black Tom: Terror on the Hudson." That book received the Jersey City Landmark Conservancy's J.Owen Grundy History Award in 2016.
In 2006, his old friend, the celebrated author, the late Warren Murphy, suggested they write a book together. The result was "Miss Bidwell's Spirit". The Kindle edition is available on Amazon.com. Murphy referred to his collaborator as a "literary Grandma Moses" since Semple didn't write his first book until he was 71. Semple replies, "I was just a kid then. I'm more mature now."
Ron Semple is a fifth generation Jersey City native descended from Irish, Scottish and Italian immigrants. He was educated by the Jesuits at St. Peter's Preparatory School and St. Peter's College in Jersey City and Loyola University in New Orleans.
He enlisted in the Marines at 18 during the Korean Conflict. He served as a drill instructor at Parris Island and as a rifle squad leader with the 4th Marines in the Pacific. Semple was discharged as a sergeant in 1956 and then served eight years in the Marine reserve.
After working as a rigger in a Hoboken shipyard with his Italian stepfather, Semple got his first job as a cub reporter on New Year's Eve, 1956, with the now defunct Hudson Dispatch in Union City, NJ. He took a fifty percent pay cut to become a newspaperman. He covered police and politics in Jersey City and worked as a deskman before he joined The Jersey Journal in Jersey City in 1959 as a general assignment reporter. He was city editor when he left in 1965 to travel.
Travel he did. He worked as a merchant seaman on a freighter touching a dozen ports in West Africa. He also supported himself as a mate on a small charter fishing boat, construction laborer, truck driver, carpenter's helper and as the legislative secretary of a New Jersey state senator, Frank J. Guarini Jr. who later became a seven term congressman.
Semple returned to newspapering in 1967 joining the Billings (MT) Gazette as swing editor. He became managing editor nine months later. He was subsequently named business manager and later general manager. In 1973, Semple went to Lee Enterprises' corporate offices in Davenport, IA, as assistant to the vice president of newspaper operations and later became assistant to the president. He was named publisher of the Helena (MT) Independent Record in 1976 and publisher of the Winona (MN) Daily News in 1981. Semple left Lee Enterprises in 1985 and joined B.F. Shaw Publishing in Crystal Lake, IL, where he helped establish a new daily newspaper, the Northwest Herald.
Semple struck out on his own as a consultant two years later and ultimately worked with more than 200 newspapers, state press associations, corporations and colleges. He was a discussion leader at the American Press Institute at Reston, VA, for twenty years.
When Semple retired the grind from daily newspapers, he began a new career as a volunteer in the emergency services. He joined the Galena Territory (IL) Fire Department at 53 and worked as a firefighter, an emergency medical technician and chief's aide. He is a life member of that department. Semple was certified as a paramedic in 1991 and served four years with the Galena Area Ambulance Service.
Moving South in 1995, Semple joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary at 61. He qualified as Coast Guard boat crew at Station Oak Island at Cape Fear, NC, on the Atlantic Ocean. He sailed on numerous search and rescue operations and stood watch as the station's radio operator. He also worked as an deputy planning chief r with the Coast Guard's Marine Safety office in Wilmington, NC, and helped in the aftermath of five hurricanes. Semple later worked with the Coast Guard on Lake Ontario and on the St. Lawrence River in New York. He was a division vice captain in the Coast Guard Auxiliary before he retired in 2011 with 16 years services. He holds a number of Coast Guard decorations.
In 2004, Semple joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist at disasters and was deployed to a half-dozen hurricanes as well as floods on the Mississippi River before his resignation in 2015.
He moved to Advance, NC, in 2010 with his wife, the former Jane Guarascio who was marketing director of the Winona (MN) Daily News when they wed. They have two grown daughters, a foster son and four grandchildren. Semple now helps out with the Advance Fire Department.
Semple can be reached at ronsemple17@gmail.com
"Miss Bidwell's Spirit" (with Warren Murphy), Ballybunion Books, 2006
(Kindle edition offered on Amazon.com)
