Jeff grew up in rural western New York State not far from the Pennsylvania border, where great fishing and hunting were little more than a few hundred yards from the house. His mother introduced him to fishing at an early age, and his addiction to hunting grew from tagging along behind his father on weekend hunts for grouse and woodcock. His love for the outdoors expanded to waterfowl hunting and trapping, and by age 12 a childhood fascination with archery developed into a lifelong passion for bowhunting.
After high school, his outdoor pursuits were effectively put on hold for a decade by a self-imposed life of poverty brought on by college, graduate school and postdoctoral training afterwards that kept him in the big cities of Tampa, Chicago and Boston. Upon joining the faculty at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis in 1990, Jeff was once again able to realize his outdoor passions. In 2006, Jeff moved to Pennsylvania where he is now a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, just outside of Harrisburg.
The majority of his outdoor time is now devoted to bowhunting of big game with traditional archery gear, though he enjoys turkey hunting and fishing whenever he can squeeze them in. In addition to hunting in several of the lower-48 states, he has bowhunted in 5 of the Canadian provinces, Southeast Alaska, and South Africa.
Jeff lives in Hummelstown, PA with his wife of 29 years Clare, and their 7-year-old son Connor, who this year joined his dad for the first time on Jeff's annual winter trek to south Texas to bowhunt for wild hogs and javelina.
About Caitlin Thompson