As a student at Oregon State University Wolverton worked as a SCUBA instructor, small-time commercial diver, lifeguard, taught survival swimming and first aid, and managed a municipal pool. At OSU he majored in the sciences and enrolled in several photography courses.

After graduation from Oregon Health Sciences University he spent 20 years in Alaska. For three years he —"along with Sue, two kids and two dogs" — lived in a small interior village and practiced bush dentistry, covering 12 isolated communities, primarily by small plane.

After relocating to southeast Alaska and a more conventional practice, he studied photography at the University of Alaska’s Auke Bay campus.

While in Alaska he photographed and wrote for the Capitol City Weekly and had photos published in Alaska Geographic Society books and Alaska, Sports Illustrated and Natural History magazines. For a time he wrote a nationally published clinical photography column.

In 1990 Wolverton entered the graduate school of journalism at Oregon State University pursuing an advanced degree and instructing undergraduate photojournalism. In 1994 he received a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a major in photojournalism and a minors in journalism management and community college education. Now he serves as Associate Editor and Director of Photography for The Oregon Stater, OSU’s alumni journal.

An active freelancer and stock-shooter, Wolverton splits time between Oregon and "our other place" in Montana’s Absaroka Range a few miles north of Yellowstone National Park. Assignments have taken him to Africa, Europe, all over North America and he’s shot stock in Asia and the Caribbean.

When asked to list his major accomplishments he says, "Being blissfully married to an enchanting woman for 42 years, raising two remarkable kids, seeing and photographing some of the world, and always loving my work and life."