A former psychotherapist with Nathaniel Branden and in private practice for 14 years, R. Don Steele has been writing since 1984. Don’s first job was at age 12. In the heart of Appalachia, he was the Saturday telephone operator in his home town of Shippenville, Pennsylvania (population 258), where he earned ten cents an hour. At 16, he worked as an embalmer’s assistant for the summer. The next summer, he was an oiler of strip mining equipment, a muddy, cold, dreary, dangerous task. Those two jobs convinced him to get an education.
Don attended Clarion State, Penn State, USC and Cal State Fullerton to earn a BA in Philosophy and Cal State Northridge for his MA in Psychology. He interned with Nathaniel Branden at the Biocentric Institute in Beverly Hills. After becoming a Marriage, Family and Child Counselor in 1976, he worked with Branden and was in private practice. He began writing his own books in 1984.
Additionally, Don has worked for more than 20 aerospace, defense and engineering companies as well as the Republican National Committee and many political campaigns both in LA and in Hawaii. Beyond writing, other passions include a deep, abiding hatred for hypocrites, bureaucrats, poverty pimps and nearly all politicians; a lifelong devotion to anthropology, philosophy; astronomy and cosmology plus a long-term love affair with Hawaii, consummated in 1996. He lives in Whittier CA, with Smiley the six pound dog, Silly the house cat and Willie White Toes outside tree-rat killer cat.
TV and Radio:
Montel Williams, Jenny Jones, Dick Clark’s THE OTHER HALF, To Tell The Truth, A&E’s Love Connection Series [featured in the May-December Romance] The X Show and many local LA TV shows. And has done over 500 radio interviews since 1987.
