After a two-year stint working for a small-town newspaper in Southwestern Oregon, Bo Shindler’s career in journalism was sidetracked when he decided that he wanted to be part of making some history rather than reporting on others having all the fun.
Working out of Gold Beach, Oregon, Shindler co-founded a marine closure sales/manufacturing venture in the mid-1970s. Initially focused on the Pacific Northwest, their organization rapidly expanded as they developed expertise for the benefit of builders of ocean-going boats throughout North America and the world. Shindler enjoyed a more than 40-year professional journey until his retirement in 2014. In the course of work Shindler traveled extensively around the world, in the process of making numerous global circumnavigations and meeting people from all walks of life and cultures, he came to understand the value of diversity and power of acceptance. His career that started in a small shop on the Southwestern Oregon coast included recognitions by the State of Oregon and US Small Business Administration as an innovative manufacturer and exporter.
An avid fly fisherman, Shindler has waded in waters of Iceland, New Zealand, Tasmania, Argentina, Kamchatka, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Cuba, Bahamas, and Alaska to experience grandeur at the ends of the earth alongside running water. His home waters are the lower 50 miles of the Rogue River, where he has fished salmon and steelhead for more than 70 years.
Shindler has always been interested in factual human stories that detail and describe overcoming obstacles to drive great accomplishments. His first book, With Barely TWO NICKELS To Rub Together, won an award in 2021 as the best non-fiction book of the year for North America. Shindler compiled “Two Nickels” to recognize the contribution the hands of ordinary people, craftsmen and women, make to their communities. The story provides a record and testament of how focused and careful thought merged with hard work and determination can overcome odds to compound and provide personal security and betterment for oneself and society in general.
His second book, Oregon’s ISOLATE COAST – When A Continent and Ocean Collide, is the most comprehensive historical record of the Southwestern Oregon Coast with the lower Rogue River as the epicenter that has been assembled to date. Shindler compiled the story from numerous historical records to produce a fair and balanced narrative.
Bo has made his home in Gold Beach, Oregon since 1971, where he and his wife, Kathy, raised their family which they refer to as The United Nation.