About Freelance Copywriter Ken Norkin
First of all, I admit it's a little strange to have an About Me page, seeing as this entire Web site is about me. I'm using this space to help you meet the person behind the work you can see on other pages.
A Short Professional Biography
I always wanted to be a writer. Not necessarily of marketing copy. And certainly not a freelance copywriter. Well, how did I get here? Here's the shortest version I've ever told.
I was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Rockville, Maryland. By the time I graduated from the University of Maryland in 1973 with a degree in journalism, I had been copy editor of my high school newspaper, reporter for the student daily Diamondback, news director at campus radio station WMUC-AM and a stringer for the Montgomery Journal. My post-college full-time employment began as a technical editor at NUS Corporation, working on environmental and safety analysis reports for the licensing of nuclear power plants. Fun.
Though low-paying, this turned out to be an important job for three reasons: I discovered an affinity for technical subject matter. I was reassigned as one-third of the PR department to write and edit an external newsletter, brochures and other marketing materials — launching my 40-year marketing communications career. And I met my future wife, Linda Stern. We were married in 1976.
Later, I was a writer in the public affairs program of the Atomic Industrial Forum, employee publications manager for GEICO, copy/contact person at Stackig, Sanderson & White, and vice president and copy chief at The Washington Agency.
That's the job I chose to leave after 8-1/2 years to go freelance in 1991.