Ron Hyde has spent most of his life in the Alaska Bush, and he credits much of what he knows to the people he met there.
He grew up in Flint and Detroit, spent time in South Florida, and followed his father north to Alaska as a boy. Together they ran a family guiding business on the Goodnews River. Ron went on to guide independently elsewhere in Alaska as a fly-fishing and wilderness guide. He also served as a Village Public Safety Officer and an emergency responder.
Author’s Bio
Later, Ron carried what guiding and Bush life had taught him into the corporate world, working with a global engineering and construction management firm on demolition, remediation, and construction at remote WWII, Cold War, and other formerly used defense sites throughout Alaska and the Pacific Rim. He went on to build his own company supporting remote-site work in Alaska and around the world, across industries including mining, oil and gas, government, and research. Altogether, his work has reached many hundreds of sites.
The Yup’ik community of Goodnews Bay gave him the name Agyaq, which means “star,” and he writes his memoir under that name to honor the elders who welcomed a young outsider and taught him how to live on the land.
An outdoorsman at heart, he remains connected to the wild places that shaped him. He lives on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, along the shores of Cook Inlet, and is the father of two daughters. He started Big Beluga Press to do what those elders did for him: pass hard-earned lessons forward through stories. The Ghosts Are Laughing is his first book. The Willow and the Flower, a picture book published under the name Ron Hyde, is also from Big Beluga Press.