MAVERICK PRIEST

Ames Swartsfager is a 72 year old freelance writer, author and priest at Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in Tariffville, CT. With an interesting history he was almost shot four times, in five riots, and the tail end of the "Perfect Storm." 

He spent his teenage life in a gang riddled neighborhood in San Francisco.  He joined a gang to survive. Looking for a way out of this situation, he saw the sea and sailing as a method of escape.  All he needed was a boat. 

After High School (in a better neighborhood) he dabbled in the Beatnik life, went to college, worked as photo journalist and in business.  The call to enter the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, lead him to missionary work in Central America.  He returned to the states and became chaplain of the Woodstock Rock Festival. 

Following this he became a Chaplain in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, where he worked for twenty-two years. When he retired he sailed with his wife, Judy, in the Caribbean for five years and did some more missionary work in Colombia, SA.

He developed Myasthenia Gravis and moved back to the states for treatment.  During this time he wrote several books. In 2011 he published "Between the Devil and the Deep...Memoirs of a Maverick Priest."
In 2010 he published, "The Prince and the Tigers," and "The Cruising Definition," a book of sea songs with CD. Currently he is working on a new book, "Voices from Prison."

Awards: Chaplain of the Year 1989, Bureau of Prisons, Honorary mention for a book at Los Angeles Book Fair in 2010