Robert Nelson
About Me
After 25 years of writing and editing at newspapers and magazines in the Midwest and Southwest, I moved to the Washington, D.C., area, where my wife accepted a promotion within the National Park Service (She moved three times with my reporting jobs. It was time for me to ride shotgun).
Prior to our move three years ago, I was editor-in-chief of the four magazines of Omaha Publications, which included the largest lifestyle magazine in Nebraska, Omaha Magazine. During my tenure, the magazine won several awards in the Great Plains Journalism Awards. Prior to editing the magazines, I was a metro columnist for the Omaha World-Herald, the largest daily in the state. Prior to taking that position in my home state in 2007, I spent seven years as an investigative reporter, columnist and editor for Village Voice Media.
Since coming to Northern Virginia, I have written articles for numerous publications, including a long piece for the Washington Post on the career of former Trump attorney John Dowd and a 4,000-word feature for the Washingtonian on the struggles and ultimate triumph of a 92-year-old hunter lost in the woods of West Virginia. I also have become the permanent author of the back-of-the-book "Departure" column for Virginia Living Magazine, the state's largest lifestyle magazine.
Last February, I return to Omaha for a month and a half to restructure and edit the four magazines of Omaha Publications, for which I continue to serve as a consulting editor. The magazine was named "Magazine of the Year" in the Great Plains Journalism Awards for its work in 2017.
Also, early last year, I started a private publishing house, Legacy West Media, with Arizona state historian Jack August. Legacy West published its first book, "Loving Life," authored by the founder of the International Genomics Consortium, Richard Mallery. As the company's CEO and publisher, I handled all aspects of the project, from editing the manuscript and photos and assisting Mallery in his writing, to hiring designers, copy editors and a printing company while managing payments to all of the company's contractors. The book, which cost $42,000 to produce, was accepted into the archives of the Library of Congress in September.
I am currently finishing a biography of former Arizona Governor and likely U.S. Senate candidate Fife Symington, who hopes to take Sen. John McCain's seat in 2020. In 2017 and 2018, my research and writing was financed by the Southwest Center for History and Public Policy and through my one-year appointment as scholar-in-residence at the Arizona State Capitol Museum.
In 2016 and 2017, I served as a consulting producer for two episodes for programs on the Investigation Discovery channel and continued pursuing -- in conjunction with the producers of Red Marble Media -- the development of a series tentatively titled "Western Water Wars."
When not writing, editing, publishing or producing, I continue to coach baseball in, and serve on the board of, the Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth League. I have coached the league's "All-Star" team the last two years. In all, I have coached for nearly two decades, which, my wife explains, is enough.
My wife and I have three sons -- all former baseball players -- as well as a parakeet I wish was a dog.
