Pictured above: Annie spelunking in Australia’s Blue Mountains

GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES

INTRODUCING ANNIE TOBEY

By Terry Haycock

With this series of member profiles, we hope to enhance our knowledge of each other on personal as well as professional levels

I was sitting at a table in the Boomer conference room waiting for my interviewee, whom I had never met. All I knew about Annie Tobey was that she was an award-winning journalist who wrote about craft beer, food, and travel.

Formidable company, I thought. Imagine my surprise when the door opened to admit a small, sprightly, athletic woman sporting silvery hair sparsely streaked with purple! She brightened the room with her disciplined athletic energy and humorous sparkling eyes. This would be fun.    

A native Virginian, Annie has lived in several parts of the country only to return to Richmond. She is both a freelance writer and an editor/writer for Boomer magazine, where her daughter is also on staff. In addition to covering stories on craft beer and breweries, she writes about food and travel. If you’ve read her work, you know she enjoys what she does. (You can check some of her work out at boomermagazine.com.) 

Annie is also a board member of Richmond Beeristoric, a nonprofit promoting the capital city’s beer history. The group recently received approval for a historic marker at the Yuengling beer caves beside the James River. Check them out on facebook.com/beerstoricrva.

Since one purpose of the interview was to discover things about her as a person, Annie and I moved on to what she likes to do in her “free” time. Run! She is currently coaching a Sports Backers marathon training team. She literally runs whenever she can, with a fondness for trails. Annie is also a tennis and softball enthusiast, but says, “Most of the time I have away from working is running; there isn’t much time for anything else!”

Annie loves being outdoors and is well traveled. She experienced Hong Kong and Shanghai in 2018. In Sydney, Australia, she met up with her daughter, who had just completed a job in Perth. The pair toured Sydney and visited the nearby Blue Mountains. She also loves Virginia, favorite sites being Roanoke and Loudoun County.

Don’t miss a chance to become acquainted with this fascinating writer at our next VPC meeting. It will be worth the trip!