Tom Dirsa

Tom Dirsa was born in New England. Raised in Provincetown on Cape Cod. In 1967 he came to Alberta, Canada for two years and stayed a lifetime! A successful teacher, basketball coach, and school principal who, since retirement, began a career as a writer. He started by writing for Alberta Education. Then as a reporter for a community newspaper.

He wrote the first volume of an eight-volume series about Canada’s first 150 years called Canada Becomes a Federation.

He is the author of five children picture books. Sweaty Eyes, Fishing Lessons for Grandpa, BJ & the Green Monstah! Which tells the story of BJ's first trip to a baseball game at historic Fenway Park. His fourth book To See a Deer relates a story of exploring a nature park in search of a deer. His latest book To See a Whale is about a journey on a whale watching boat.

Recently Tom has worked with the Leduc Public Library to produce an interesting four volume series of history books about the City of Leduc titled Leduc: Then & Now. The Alberta Provincial Library honored Tom in 2020 by including his book The School with No Students, a story about Covid-19 in their collection about the virus.

Today Tom makes the occasional presentation and works on his podcast Jake & the Old Fart. Tom can be reached on Facebook as CoachTD.