Ben Gadd, 79, is one of Canada’s better-known naturalists and Rockies writers. Author of them ground-breaking Handbook of the Canadian Rockies, Ben has written ten other books and contributed to several more. His novel Raven’s End has become a prize-winning Canadian best-
seller. Ben has received four Banff Mountain Festival awards for his work, as well as the festival’s prestigious Summit of Excellence prize. In 2014 the Geological Association of Canada awarded Ben their E. R. Ward Neale Medal for his many years of sharing Earth science with Canadians. In 2016 he received the Geosciences in the Media award from the American
Association of Petroleum Geologists. After earning a degree in Earth science, Ben has pursued a career mainly in natural history, starting with three years as a Parks Canada naturalist. He has also taught writing at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Grant MacEwan College. Until his retirement in 2016, he worked in the summer as a freelance interpretive guide—one of only 19 guides accredited as master interpreters in Canada’s professional Interpretive Guides Association—and in the winter as a writer and sought-after lecturer on Rockies topics. He has also produced interpretive signs for national and provincial parks, as well as geological exhibits for museums. Heard from time to time on CBC radio, Ben has also appeared in many television items and several documentaries on the Rockies. He supports various conservation groups in promoting wilderness protection. Ben and his wife Cia live in Canmore, where they are Grandpa and Grandma across the yard from Marie and Rose.