William Henry (Old Hutch) Hutchinson was born on August 13, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He attended school in Oxford, Mississippi; Newark, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado, and Redondo Beach, California. He earned his Master of Arts degree from Chico State College in 1961. He worked at various times as a horse wrangler, a cowboy, a boiler fireman, and a mucker in mines. During the Depression, Hutchinson worked as Chief Purser on passenger vessels. During World War II, he served as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Maritime Service where he saw duty in the South Pacific, North Atlantic, and Mediterranean. After the war, Hutchinson moved to Butte County and became a freelance writer. He sold more than 150 fact and fiction articles to a variety of popular magazines. He also wrote, narrated, and produced several historical pageants on California, and had his own weekly radio and television shows. Hutchinson authored 15 books, one of which, Oil, Land and Politics: The California Career of Thomas R. Bard, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also worked as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and frequently contributed to the Chico Enterprise-Record. Hutchinson taught part-time at Chico State College, Sonoma State College, and San Francisco State between 1953 and 1964. Hutchinson served as a full-time faculty member at Chico from fall 1964 until his retirement in 1978. Hutchinson died of a heart attack in Chico on March 11, 1990.