A Good Life in the Inland Northwest: A Collection of Columns from the Spokesman-Review

Book by Peck, Chris, Higgins, Shaun, Higgins, Shaun O'L.

Chris Peck's first journalism job was sweeping out the castoff linotype lead filings at the Daily Riverton (Wyoming) Ranger. That was in 1961. He was 11 and the co-owner's son.

Newspapering in his blood, he studied communication at Stanford, landed an editor's slot right after graduation at the Wood River (Idaho) Journal, and aimed at markets that were larger - but not big enough to displace him from the landscape of his beloved West. The progression was steady.

In 1977 he was named managing editor of the Twin Falls (Idaho) Times-News. Joining the Spokane Spokesman-Review as a news columnist in 1979, he was managing editor three years later, adding the same title at the Spokane Chronicle when the papers merged in 1983.

At the privately-held The Spokesman-Review, the largest newspaper between Minneapolis and Seattle, Peck directs a staff of 150 journalists and is a member of the company's four-person executive management team.

The Spokesman-Review won the General Excellence award as the best metro daily in the Inland Pacific Northwest for 10 years in a row.

A steelhead fisherman and a jogger, Peck is married to Kate Duignan, a self-employed fashion designer. They look after Sarah, 15, and Cody, 12, together.