Committed to Excellence
2023 was productive and fruitful.
Looking for a book to tell your story, enhance your brand, raise money, make a point, sell yourself, break open your business? Here are some titles I wrote or ghosted that were published this year, including a new edition of the New York Times best-selling From Baghdad, With Love; a history of our national parks; a business book from a corporate savior on how to cut the bullshit; and commemorative histories of Rye Country Day School and Agnes Irwin School.
A New Edition of a New York Times Best-Seller
An ultimately uplifting lesson on life and love that only a special bond can bring.
What happens when the indelible bond between a man and a dog formed in the harshest of conditions is put the test?
Moving and uplifting, here is the long-awaited updated edition of The New York Times best-selling From Baghdad with Love.
Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman went to extraordinary lengths to bring back to America the puppy his combat-hardened Marines rescued in war-torn Fallujah—called the “most dangerous city on Earth.” That tense journey back to peacetime America was the easy part, they would learn. By the time they returned home, Lava and Lt. Col. Kopelman were kindred spirits, bound by the chaos they had shared in Iraq.
From hardened soldiers to wartime journalists to endangered Iraqi citizens, From Baghdad, With Love told the unforgettable true story of an unlikely band of heroes who learn unexpected lessons about life, death, and war from a mangy little flea-ridden refugee. Lt. Col. Kopelman won the hearts of readers everywhere with his moving story of adopting Lava.
This revised and updated edition takes readers back to America and new challenges both Lt. Col. Kopelman and Lava faced—what millions of veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan faced: Trying to live normal lives after chaotic life-and-death combat tours. As they settled back into life far from Iraq and war, he and Lava learned that while they both faced daily challenges, they had each other, and that bond proved to be all they needed. The transition was not easy but with each other’s love they would survive.
Theirs was a passage ripe with answers and inspiration for anyone.
A Celebration of Our National Parks
A Century of Impact celebrates the first 100 years of the National Parks Conservation Association, tracing its history and vision through stunning photography and tales of victory in a beautifully designed keepsake book.
From its founding by the same visionaries who helped to create the National Park Service to present-day battles to protect our public lands, the National Parks Conservation Association has been the independent, non-partisan protector of America’s favorite places.
A Century of Impact presents this admirable legacy through richly illustrated tales of an impassioned organization in action — fighting off threats to park lands, water, air and wildlife, and advocating for a park system that tells a more complete American story.
Readers will enjoy fascinating and often untold tales of park protection — such as saving Olympic’s old-growth forests from WWII lumber production; restoring the endangered Florida panther in the greater Everglades ecosystem; keeping the nation’s largest landfill from the doorstep of Joshua Tree; defeating a proposed casino sited within cannon range of the hallowed ground of Gettysburg — and an inside look at how persistent advocacy led to the creation of parks from Great Basin and Tallgrass Prairie to Pullman, Stonewall and Birmingham.
With A Century of Impact, readers are invited to join NPCA’s centennial celebration and discover how this humble organization has helped to shape the National Park System as we know it. More than that, it is a compelling reminder that the future of this nation’s most sacred spaces lies in the hands of ordinary citizens, united to ensure that America’s best idea endures for generations to come.
Frank Business Advice from a Corporate Savior
Paul Vuolle speaks four languages fluently, but he has found that the language of corporate euphemism hist most difficult to fathom.
You expect clarity and simplicity from a leader; you expect their words to count. But such is not always the case. A leadership vacuum is occurring globally in government politics, with corporate CEOs, entrepreneurs, and in struggling companies.
This is not a good foundation to build a transformational process, which demands direction, simplicity, clarity and--of course--has consequences.
Using his experience as a renowned leadership expert, R. Paul Vuolle brings you back to basics on how to lead people in a straightforward and honest way. Relatable and empathetic, Paul's message is simple but effective, and cuts through the bullshit so you can lead and manage people effectively.
Not for Self, But for Service
In 1869 a group of parents in the quiet village of Rye, New York, sought to challenge the way their daughters were educated.
They wanted to imbue students with a thirst for knowledge in an unprecedented spirit of freedom and enthusiasm. They were confident there was a better way to encourage young minds than what for years had been accepted as normal.
Their vision called for a teacher nimble enough to face the challenges that lay ahead without wavering from the mission.
They would choose the confident and innovative Susan Life to shepherd their daughters into the new and challenging years following the Civil War, and in 1869 The Rye Female Seminary opened its doors with an enrollment of 60 girls, 25 boarders and 35 day students.
Susan Life laid the foundation that would grow into a deep pool of collective knowledge that has been passed on to school leaders and its exceptional teachers ever since: Be creative and observant, respect what those before you have done. Look to the future. Make the world a better place. Practice daily the community involvement from which the school’s motto sprang: “Not for Self, but for Service.”
There have been constant changes and challenges since that first day, including the Great Depression and two World Wars. There were difficult questions about including boys, and pressing competition from newer schools. A new Thruway would intrude rudely into the campus. Still, school trustees, its heads, and its steadfastly loyal alumni and parents calmly adjusted and moved forward, keeping the vision alive.
Susan Life was followed by a line of leaders and teachers whose ability to adapt and grow has led to today, where Rye Country Day School continues to find itself ahead of the curve, preparing students for an ever-changing world.
Nothing speaks more to the continuous thread of growth than the number of graduates and families who for generations have attended the school and continue to support it—as long as change does not erode the traditions on which the school was founded. Today Rye Country Day School finds itself ahead of the curve, preparing students for an ever-changing world.
From day one, the purpose of a Rye Country Day School education has always been to provide students with the experiences they need to uncover their maximum potential—to be able to contribute meaningfully to the world around them.
Today, the tradition so firmly established by Susan Life lives on. Rye Country Day School's commitments to learning, understanding, and service have existed since the start, but each generation that has passed through Rye Country Day School has added its own distinct mark.
A Rye Country Day School education is, as Head of School Scott Nelson has said: “Excellence with a purpose.”
A Chilling Collection of Challenge and Courage
Being aboard a sinking ship is perhaps the most terrifying experience a human being can endure. Imagine those last peaceful moments as the vessel beneath you slides quickly into the dark waters that only moments before you had so confidently glided across.
It is as one survivor you will read about in this stunning collection recalled, “a sudden sickening sense of disaster.”
Awaiting you are starvation, thirst and unimagined weather--perhaps blistering sun or soul-crushing cold. Outside your leaking and fragile craft are circling sharks waiting to tear you to shreds. Hope will fade quickly.
Utterly absorbing and eminently entertaining, here are twelve inspirational stories of life and death and hope—and of resilience and unimagined strength.
These stories show more than anything the indomitable spirit of sailors who scoffed at death and moved on—doing what they had to do to live.
Committed to Excellence
A tragedy in the frigid summer waters off the Maine coast in 1867 set in motion a series of events that would accelerate the budding career of a young teacher in New York. Mary E. Tazewell and Mary E. Houpt -- the proprietors of the West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies in Philadelphia —had drowned in the numbing waters of Frenchman Bay.
The school would open its doors again in September with a new principal who served only briefly. Such schools led precarious existences, often lasting only a year or two.
School supporters began a search for someone who could transform the Seminary into an institution capable of instilling responsibility and duty, and where the female students would obtain a rigorous, forward-thinking education. They wanted someone who could forge a new path.
Miss Agnes Irwin was uniquely suited for the challenge. On Wednesday, September 22, 1869, the West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies opened with Agnes Irwin as principal. She believed in stimulating young minds and in creating an atmosphere where students were invigorated and left wanting to learn even more.
The school would move to 19th and Spruce Streets in March 1875, and in the process, the West Penn Square Seminary for Young Ladies became Miss Irwin’s School of Philadelphia, attracting more students and more attention to Agnes Irwin and her methods.
In May 1894, after 25 energetic years of teaching and leading, Agnes Irwin left her beloved school to become the first dean of Harvard University’s recently incorporated institution for women, Radcliffe College.
She had laid the foundation that would grow into a deep pool of collective knowledge that has been passed on to school leaders and its exceptional teachers ever since. She was succeeded by her sister Sophy Dallas Irwin, who would begin an unparalleled line of school leaders that remains in place today.
There have been constant changes and challenges since the day Agnes Irwin took charge, including the Great Depression and two World Wars. There were difficult moves as Philadelphia changed and the school sought more accommodating facilities to the west.
There was increasing competition from newer schools and the constant need for growth to accommodate the growing number of students. Still, school leaders and parents calmly adjusted and moved forward, keeping Agnes Irwin’s vision alive
The Agnes Irwin School today is one of the oldest continuously operating day schools for girls in the country. Throughout its history, it has distinguished itself by successfully challenging its students with academic rigor in a nurturing environment.
Today the 24-acre Agnes Irwin campus is a celebration of the ideals held by Heads of School, teachers, alumnae, and a deep community of school supporters. Alongside the academic experience provided by passionate and skilled educators, Agnes Irwin students can participate in the school’s rich extracurricular offerings and traditions--.which see to it that Agnes Irwin’s call for involvement in the world is thriving.
The Agnes Irwin School’s hallmark is its sense of community; possessing a fervent energy and a joyful desire for learning and teaching.