Jerry Steimel was born in Louisville, Kentucky, where he spent his youth and undergraduate college years at the University of Louisville. He departed Louisville in 1974 to attend graduate school at the University of Chicago, receiving a Masters in Social Work. During a forty-five year career in youth work, he worked in various settings assisting disadvantaged youth. These included the court system of Chicago, a residential program in Maine, an outdoor adventure program in Massachusetts, and as the director of a shelter for runaway teens in the Boston area. The final years of his career were with Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston as Director of the Charlestown Club and as Executive Vice-President of Operations. He is married and has two daughters. Now retired, he lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts-when he is not wandering the country in his 1973 VW bus.