Bob Greene
From Academic Kids
Bob Greene (born March 10, 1947) is an American journalist, best known as an award-winning columnist for the Chicago Tribune newspaper for 24 years. He is also the author of books on subjects varying from Michael Jordan to small towns to U.S. presidents.
Greene attracted national attention when he was forced to resign in September, 2002, after a sex scandal. He admitted having sex several years earlier with a then teen-aged girl, a high school student who visited Greene for a school project that Greene subsequently used as the subject of a column. The incident attracted considerable attention partly because Greene had made a name for himself as a crusader on behalf of abused children and as an advocate of family values, notably in his best-selling book Good Morning, Merry Sunshine: A Father's Journal of His Child's First Year.
Originally from Bexley, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus), Greene attended Northwestern University in Chicago and became a reporter and feature writer for the Chicago Sun-Times upon graduating in 1969; within two years he had a regular column in the paper and in late 1971 a collection of his writing was published in book form. Greene first drew significant national attention with his book, Billion Dollar Baby (1975), a diary of his experiences as a roadie for rock musician Alice Cooper. Greene's primary focus remained his newspaper column, for which he won the National Headliner's Award for best column in 1977 from an American journalism group. Shortly afterward, Greene switched to the competing Chicago Tribune. Greene also began making occasional guest appearances on local television, eventually landing a commentary slot on the ABC news program Nightline.
During the 1990s Greene spent time covering Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls basketball team. The two formed an unlikely friendship which Greene documented in two popular books.
Greene was extremely popular as a writer but he had his critics, largely because of what critics saw as excessive sentimentality and often heavy writing. A Chicago alternative weekly newspaper ran a column called Bob Watch: We Read Him So You Don't Have To, which made fun of his work.
Bibliography
- Fraternity : A Journey in Search of Five Presidents (Crown, 2004) ISBN 1400054648
- The Get with the Program! Guide to Good Eating: Great Food for Good Health (Simon & Schuster, 2003) ISBN 0743243102
- Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen (William Morrow, 2002) ISBN 0060081961
- Duty: A Father, His Son, And The Man Who Won The War (William Morrow, 2000) ISBN 0380978490
- Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan (Viking Press, 1995) ISBN 0670866784
- Chevrolet Summers, Dairy Queen Nights (Viking Press, 1997) ISBN 0670870323
- To Our Children's Children (Doubleday, 1993) ISBN 0385467974
- Good Morning, Merry Sunshine: A Father's Journal of His Child's First Year (Atheneum, 1984) ISBN 0689114346
- Billion Dollar Baby (Atheneum, 1974) ISBN 0689106165
