Education: B.S., M.S., Drexel University; MPA, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and M.S., Civil Engineering, MIT, specializing in transportation planning, analysis, and policy.

As an undergraduate, Hawthorn switched from chemical engineering to the humanities program where he concentrated on technical and creative writing, along with the analysis of novels and poems. He aimed to bring the right and left sides of his brain into a better balance.

Work: Gary's writing experiences began in high school. The Trentonian, Trenton Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer paid him to write articles on all the sports played by his high school. The Trenton Times paid by the column inch which led to temporary verbosity, corrected by Rule 17 of The Elements of Style and other work experience. In college, he wrote feature articles for The Triangle, Drexel's weekly undergraduate newspaper.

Hawthorn worked as a program manager and policy advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C. He negotiated and wrote EPA statutes, regulations, policies, and guidance documents designed to reduce vehicle emissions and congestion.

Gary consulted for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France. He served on expert groups, wrote papers, made presentations, and negotiated consensus reports reflecting the views of 24 nations. Hawthorn conducted and wrote case studies for OECD in cities throughout Europe that acted to reduce the environmental impacts of vehicles.

Entrepreneur: After escaping the bureaucracies, he wrote newsletters for federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. His newsletters put complicated statutes, regulations, and policies into plain English, stripped of bureaucratese. The space-constrained / printed newsletters sharpened his skills of triage.

In other lives, Gary pursued more amusing work endeavors: 

• As a solo entreprenur, Hawthorn became the exclusive U.S. importer, marketer, and salesman of Le Corkscrew Tèléscopique and other French barware. He attributes his success to infectious enthusiasm for the corkscrew and the writing of effective promotional material and advertising copy.

• He applied the same creative writing skills to HotTatas.com, his Web-based tee shirt company offering whimsical designs.

Personal: Gary lives with his amazing wife Lucille in Cape May, NJ for most of the year, while spending the winter months in Jupiter, FL.

Both towns offer spectacular light houses, distinct environmental amenities, and vast amounts of open space that limit population density and traffic congestion. 

Henry, aka Hank-the-Tank, joins the fun in Cape May. M. Henri is their beloved, tri-lingual French Bull Dog who was born in Bulgaria. Gary and Lucille know their life is better when a dog shares in the fun.