ABOUT US
Personal Note from Doug Levin
My close friend and Steelhead Communications co-founder Chris Santella passed away on May 23, 2024, at the age of 61. He died from a rare form of cancer, which was first diagnosed in September 2023. Chris remained active throughout his illness, continuing to write, travel, make music, and spend time with family and friends. He visited the Deschutes River—one of his favorite places—with family and friends on May 18, 2024, and died five days later. He is survived by his wife Dee and two grown daughters, Cassidy and Annabel. For more details about Chris's last few months, check out his post on the CaringBridge website.
In lieu of a formal obituary, I want to share a little bit of information about Chris and his career. Chris was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on April 3, 1963. At about three months old, he was adopted by Tina and Andy Santella. Chris was their only child. He grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut, and attended Norwalk High and then Middlebury College. He also received a Master's business degree from Yale University's School of Management.
I met Chris in a graduate English class at Yale in 1988 or 1989—and we became close friends. Chris was funny, compassionate, talented, and always eager to help. He moved to San Francisco in 1990. He met his future wife, Dee, at the Oakland Blues Festival, and the two were married in 1992. The Santellas moved to Portland, Oregon, in early 1999. My family and I had settled in the city a few months earlier. In the spring of 1999, we created Steelhead Communications. Though we were business partners, we were always friends first and foremost.
We shared clients but also worked independently. While Chris worked hard, he also made time to get out to some of the great fly-fishing spots in the region. His passion for fly fishing is of course reflected in our company's name. In the early Steelhead days, Chris put together a proposal for Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die—the first book in what became the highly successful Fifty Places series.
The book series now includes more than 15 books, focused on golfing, birding, skiing, paddling, camping, and more. There is even a Fifty Places to Drink Beer book; Chris was a great craft beer aficionado. He also published other fly-fishing books, a natural science book—Cat Wars, coauthored with Pete Marra—and a children's picture book in honor of his mom—Biking with Grandma. His fly-fishing novel, Belgian Flats, comes out in August 2024.
Chris's writing appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Trout, Outside, Atlantic Salmon Journal, Gray's Sporting Journal, American Lawyer, Middlebury Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Golf, Links, San Jose Mercury News, and American Angler, among many other publications. Chris also played guitar, sang, and wrote music as a member of Portland-based Catch & Release, a four-piece roots rock band. Check out one watershed recording, "The Last Steelhead."
Contributions in Chris's memory can be made to the American Cancer Society.
Doug Levin has served as a communications and public affairs consultant for clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, from non-profits to leading trade associations. Prior to founding Steelhead Communications, Doug served as senior writer at The Direct Impact Company, now the grassroots arm of Burson-Marsteller. Doug's industry specialties include technology, government affairs, property and casualty insurance, public transportation, utilities, and specialty chemicals. Doug received his Ph.D. in English from Yale University and his B.A., also in English, from the University of California, Berkeley. He maintains his Accreditation in Public Relations from the Public Relations Society of America. He is also a member of the Mystery Writers of America, and his short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and magazines.
