Who is Ben Stubenberg?
I have had the good fortune to grow up and live in quite different cultures and landscapes, and I think that allowed me to move easily between people and places. I was born in Hawaii, but also spent much of my childhood in Norway and then California where I went to high school and college. All very normal, right?
After moving to St. Croix right after college, I taught high school English and reported for the local newspaper. During that time, I also earned a pilot’s license and flew to just about every island in the Caribbean. Later I lived and worked for months in Martinique and Haiti. Those experiences have always stayed in my heart even as I pursued more conventional careers in law and government.
For more than 13 years now, I have been privileged to live on Provo in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Here, I co-founded an international open water swim race, “Race for the Conch” Eco-SeaSwim and began writing feature articles for the local magazine, Times of the Islands. Telling stories about the region’s tumultuous history and shining a light on those who are shaping the future today is a passion that I want to share. These ever-changing, always-alluring islands and the people who inhabit them are my reason to wake up in the morning.
My soon-to-be published book, The Jamaican Bobsled Captain: Dudley “Tal” Stokes and the untold story of struggle, suffering and redemption behind Cool Runnings, delves deeply into the forces that shape Caribbean life and one Jamaican’s determination to succeed on the world stage against all odds.