Tim’s “About Me” Page (updated April, 2023)

Bio of Timothy Smith, Author, Music Producer, Musician

Our Family Left to Right: Son Nathan and his wife Danielle at Glacier National Park, 2018, Tim and Debbie Smith at Cannon Beach Oregon, 2018, and Daughter Kirstin and husband Joseph on their wedding day, Southern California, 2018

I am a retired teacher who retired in 2018 after a 29-year career at Montclair High in Southern California. I have been married to the beautiful Deborah Sullens Smith since 1977. We have two great kids, Kirstin and Nate. I got my degree at Azusa Pacific University (1973 - 1976), and my teacher ed courses from there in 1988-89 after a career at the phone company. We now split our time between our kids’ homes in California and Kansas.

I started Tanignak.com in 1999 to share some of my interests, especially stories and personal experiences from growing up as the son of missionaries in Alaska. I was born in Kodiak, Alaska, and grew up in Larsen Bay and Ouzinkie. My parents ran the Baptist mission boat Evangel from 1950 to 1964, and later (as their own boat) from 1973 to 1978. They worked with the summer camp program at Camp Woody for the first 20 years of its existence. Most of these web articles come from that experience. Some, such as the “How to Get to Kodiak” series, allow me to share my love of the old planes and ships of my childhood. I got a lot of details from former pilots and passengers when I wrote the articles.

Another important part of this web site is my involvement with the Wilson McKinley Jesus Rock band (active 1970-1979) out of Spokane, Washington. I have produced three CD reissues for them, and Tanignak.com is the original source of those albums. I also restored the tracks and wrote the inserts for the band’s two vinyl reissues (issued by another label but available here also).

As a long time amateur folk musician, I have recorded multiple albums of informal folk and gospel songs, available as burned CD’s and eventually digital downloads from this site, and one CD with friends as the Stone Table String Band, “The Love and the Mercy” - also available here. As a 78 rpm shellac record collector for over 50 years, I’ve decided to share some of that music with you, both in all digital restoration and direct from a 1926 Columbia Viva-Tonal Grafonola on the page called “Tanignak Shellac”

My two latest ventures are a new web site, TruthTexts.com, which is hosted here, for new followers of Jesus (and seekers), and a recently-completed novel of Russian Alaska, about a fictional village in the Kodiak Island area and its mysterious history, based loosely on my own experiences. The novel, Morning for Sokroshera, is available here as a digital download as well, with reviews and samples from several chapters.

I hope you explore Tanignak.com and find one or two of these ventures interesting! Let me know what you think! Email: Tanignak@aol.com  

A Few Photos – Tim Thru the Years

Early Life, Above L to R: Timmy Smith in the doorway of our tarpaper shack home in Larsen Bay, Alaska, January, 1955, on the bow of the Evangel Mission Boat, Kodiak, 1956, and my parents’ Mission home (1958 - 2006) in Ouzinkie, Alaska

Tanignak Productions is my “stage name” for this web site, tanignak.com, and the CD albums I’ve produced. The three Wilson McKinley official CD releases are available here. I also produced and performed on the CD of my folk group, the Stone Table String Band, also available here. I also distribute several other CD’s of folk-style music that Debbie and I recorded in the 1980’s, including our Christmas album, “Birthday Music.”

This site brings together my interests in Alaska history, photography and music, and I hope you find something of interest here.  My recent venture, TruthTexts.com, is hosted through this site. Please feel free to E-mail me anytime with comments, corrections or suggestions. (Write to: Tanignak@aol.com)

My music links are below, from “Tanignak Productions,” a one-man studio. Below please find our own original recordings, and also the official source for the Wilson McKinley CD reissues. Click on an image for the link.

To get back to the home page, please click on the logo of Tanignak Lake at the very bottom of this page.

Top Row: Tim and Debbie’s wedding photo, Woody Island, 1977. Tim in the co-pilot’s seat of a Grumman Goose in Kodiak, Alaska, 1996. Tim as camp chaplain and worship leader at Camp Woody, 2006, leading an outdoor worship service.

Middle Row: Tim teaching photography at Camp Woody, 2007.  Debbie as she began her last year as a kindergarten teacher, 2017-18 school year. Tim on his last day of teaching, May, 2018, Montclair High School (just after the last bell rang!).

Bottom Left: We sold our home in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, in August of 2022. We have moved to an apartment in Nate and Nelly’s home in Overland Park Kansas, and a “casita” behind Kirsti and Joe’s house in Fresno, California. So we do a lot of driving back and forth! Bottom Right Photo: The whole family on the first Christmas in our home, 2018. Left to Right: Nelly, Nate, Tim, Debbie, Kirsti, Joe.