Imagine giving up your job, your benefits (including funds for your children's college education), and mortgaging everything you own to start your own business. That's what Bill Thompson, Jr., and Elsa Thompson did 30 years ago, when they decided to start a magazine for bird watchers.
The Thompsons moved back from Iowa to the Marietta, Ohio, area in 1971, when Bill accepted the position of vice president for development at Marietta College. They had been wanting to start a business of some sort, and when Bill Sheppard, a colleague of Bill's at the college, suggested publishing a magazine, the Thompsons took note. But what kind of magazine?