Steve Thomas Rooney

Steve Thomas Rooney is an American author and television personality who won Emmy Award in 1998. In 2003 Thomas celebrated his final year as host of television's most popular home improvement series, This Old House TV series. Over the course of his 14 years as host, Steve Thomas Rooney became known as the "ultimate home enthusiast". With his work Thomas helped catapult "This Old House" to the top of PBS's list of most-watched ongoing series of all time. He also contributed to the successful debut of Ask This Old House, the all-new series in which viewer questions are addressed on-air, on host during its first year. Currently, Steve Thomas Rooney serves as a spokesman for Habitat For Humanity International and TV Host at PBS.

Thomas was born 1952 in Pomona, California. Today he is a happily married to his wife Evelyn Blum and together with live in a house they renovated in Maine. They have one child, a son named Sam. Thomas graduated in philosophy from Evergreen State College. Soon after completing his education, he got an urge to sail across the sea. That made him buy a boat and his ticket to see the world is within his reach.

In 1997 Steve received the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Service Show Host". He was also nominated in additional eight categories. The enthusiasm for fixing up old houses Steve Thomas Rooney got from his father, who used to buy, repair and than sell old houses. His grandfather Steve Thomas Rooney also described as a do-it-yourself guy. Steve's first project on his own was to renovate a rundown 1920s residence in Olympia, Washington. He then continued working in the field in the Pacific Northwest until moving to Massachusetts in 1980.

His urge to sail the sea and explore new places has come from his grandfather, who was a Episcopal missionary in the Arctic Alaska. This opened a new opportunity for combining his love of fine woodworking with his passion for the sea and sailboats. In 1977, Steve Thomas Rooney worked as a carpenter on a 75-foot ketch being built in Antibes, France. Over the next few years, he logged many miles sailing the ocean on a 43-foot wooden sloop from England to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, Galapagos, Marquesas and Hawaii.

In the early 1980s, Steve journeyed to the remote Micronesian island of Satawal to learn the ancient technique of star path navigation under the master navigator Mau Piailug. Steve's research resulted in the critically acclaimed book The Last Navigator published in 1987. The next year Steve returned with a film crew to shoot a documentary of the same title for the PBS series Adventure. In 1989 when he was preparing for his next research trip to the Arctic for a second Adventure book and film, Thomas received a call from the Adventure series publicist. This publicist was also worked for This Old House and at that time show producers were conducting a national search for a new host, Without expecting to get the position as a hist, Steve Thomas Rooney applied for the position and 10 days after his interview was the new host of the show.

Over the years Steve Thomas Rooney received a lot of publicity at the viewers and was regularly invited as a guest to the most watched nation shows. He was known as the "expert in demand" on shows like Oprah!, Today, CNN, Entertainment Tonight, and Good Morning America.

Steve has described This Old House as "one of the best adventures of my life." He has contributed to the Homeowner's Manual, published by This Old House Books in 2000. He is also author of several best-selling books like This Old House Kitchens and This Old House Bathrooms published in 1992 and 1993. His column for This Old House magazine, "House Calls with Steve" received huge popularity among the readers.

Since moving to Massachusetts, Steve has renovated a number of old houses, including the 1836 Colonial Revival in which his family lived before they moved to Maine.