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Autobiographies

My Quest to Ghana
By Keith Gillis, MBA ’02

My Quest to GhanaJourney with first-time author Keith Gillis on an eight-day voyage to discover his heritage and ancestry in Ghana. Gillis, a metal plant manager who resides with his family in West Chester, Ohio, regales readers with his personal account of the culture, people and shopping of Ghana.

As part of a group tour, he follows an emotional journey, tracing his ancestors’ footsteps from African village to “The Gate of No Return,” the last passageway for slaves heading to North America. Gillis’ honesty about his experiences and impressions in Ghana are inspiring and educational.




Order Information:
Amazon.com
ISBN: 0976031000



'Til the Fat Girl Sings:
From an Overweight Nobody to a Broadway Somebody
By Sharon Wheatley, CCM att.'90

'Til the Fat Girl Sings

This memoir shares the story of Sharon Wheatley, a Broadway singing star and alumna of the College-Conservatory of Music. While funny, candid, revealing and wise, it also reveals a heartbreaking and tragic journey to the top.
 





Order Information:
Amazon.com
ISBN: 1593375433


Under Wraps: One Soldier's Hidden Diary of World War II
by Jay Coffman, edited by Thomas Fulks, A&S '58

Like many WWII soldiers in the South Pacific, Coffman spent a fair amount of time wishing for mail from home, dreaming of his sweetheart, getting sick from malaria, making friends with native families, going horseback riding, hearing bullets "zing" past his head in combat and hoping to get home alive. He wrote his thoughts on hundreds of scraps of paper and tucked them into his personal gear.

When Coffman made it back to the U.S., he got married and forgot about war stories for a while. When the veteran uncrumpled his notes, he had his wife type them up in chronological order, for family eyes only. After his death, nephew Tom Fulks received the diary, went through the text -- identifying family and friends mentioned, researching America's wartime strategies such as food rationing, adding historically accurate notes about WWII battles and making the diary relevant to a larger audience.

Order information:
Amazon.com
For a copy signed by the editor, write to TCFulks@aol.com
ISBN: 1890905526

Another Side of World War II: A Coast Guard Lieutenant in the South Pacific
by Jules Fern, MA (A&S) '39, edited by Juliana Fern Patten

Lt. Jules Fern's Coast Guard service was great material for his natural storytelling and reporting skills. In his tour of duty in the final years of WWII, his letters home were often amusing, intriguing and minus the most gruesome details, perhaps to keep his mother from worrying. Fern's first ship was an LST (landing ship/tank), a vessel he claimed was blessed with good luck -- where he managed the ship's commissary.

After the Allied Forces landed on Leyte in the Philippines, Fern describes a series of 32 enemy air raids in one week. "The ammunition dump on the beach was hit by a bomb dropped from a high level; we watched the terrific conflagration all night. … Hundreds of soldiers bivouacked nearby were killed, and next day several who survived came aboard (our ship) for treatment and clothing. … They are all ambulatory cases, so we are spared the unpleasant ceremonies which take place at sundown on the other ships in our convoy."

After active military service, Fern resumed his career as an English instructor at UC. His daughter discovered his letters many years later and created this book.

Order information:
Amazon.com
ISBN: 1572493771

My Lost Summer, a Memoir
by Elizabeth Evans Fryer, MA (A&S) '03

The odds were definitely against 13-year-old Libbi. While riding along a country road in early July 1983, her horse stumbled and fell. Libbi hit the pavement head first, arriving at the hospital in a coma. Her worried family learned that if she lived, she would be unable to speak, have no control over her body, a feeding tube in her throat, double vision and mental confusion.

Libbi did wake up with all those problems. "Part II" of the book, written from her own memories of recovery, is the heart of this story. The young teen's sense of humor and determination helped her get through long days of frustration and painful therapy.

After several weeks, still without a voice, Libbi learned to control one hand enough to point out her first words in alphabet letters. As her family watched, wondering what she would say, they read: "Stop picking on me." Another time, when she tipped over her wheelchair as she tried to climb into her hospital bed without help, she didn't cry for help; she just took a nap under it. Finally well enough to return to junior high in October, Libbi parked her wheelchair, and asked students to walk her to classes.

Libbi makes the reader want to cheer when she not only graduates from high school and college, but goes on to earn a master's degree. And write a book.

Order information: Amazon.com, local bookstores or order directly from http://www.lulu.com/EEFryer ISBN 1-4116-6296-2

Michael Graves: Images of a Grand Tour
by Brian Ambroziak
foreword by Michael Graves, DAAP '58, HonDoc '82

Michael Graves, now a master architect, was awarded the American Academy's Rome Prize in 1960, which gave him two years to see and study masterworks in Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Germany, France and England. As he camped his way across the continent -- at 25 cents a night -- he would photograph and make analytical pencil sketches or pen-and-sepia drawings of the structures that interested him, both the monumental and the humble. This collection features 300 of those illustrations.

Graves includes a short foreword, written from a 40-years-later perspective, and a reprint of his 1977 essay, "The Necessity for Drawing," outlining the types and purposes of architectural drawing. Author Ambroziak, a former Graves architecture student at Princeton, and project designer for Michael Graves & Associates, comments on the tour's impact on Graves' life and work. He is currently a professor at the University of Tennessee.

Order information: Online and local bookstores, or Princeton Architectural Press at http://www.papress.com ISBN 156898-529-0

Life on Thin Ice
by Robert Leo Greiwe, DAAP '55

Life cover Cincinnati in the 1930s, '40s and '50s was far too tame for young Bob Greiwe and his pals, so they hatched schemes, played pranks and attempted harebrained stunts to make life exciting. Having survived this risky business, Greiwe now comes clean, confessing hilarious tales involving friends and family, and adding his original cartoon art and "historic" photos.

This is Greiwe's second book; the first was a tribute to his German ancestors who immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-19th century. Much-honored by the American Society of Interior Designers, Greiwe is also known for his oil and watercolor paintings.

Order information: Joseph-Beth bookstores

Romancing Spain
by Lamar Herrin, PhD (A&S) '78

Herrin's newest book is a true, lyrically written work with a dual story line. In one, he tells how he met the lovely Amparo, whose photo appears on the book's cover, and his subsequent heroic efforts to obtain the permission of Spanish authorities to marry her. The other follows the couple’s return to Spain, 30 years later, to revisit the countryside and find the perfect place for their retirement.

The author refrains from typical love-story excesses, but his skill in lyrical description is delicious. For example: "We enter Navarra. The valleys broaden, scoop out deep broad hollows where wheat and grapes grow. Towns are situated on the slopes, the warm ocher of their stone giving off tints of red in the afternoon sun. Pamplona lies ahead. … I'm curious to see how the city might have changed since I came here looking for help. I was a lonely man then, being kept from the woman I loved."

Review another Herrin book, "House of the Deaf."

Order information:
Amazon.com
or Unbridled Books
ISBN: 1-932961-22-4

Shanghai Remembrance
by Frank Leo, DAAP '62

The traditional aristocracy of his grandfather's time, the Japanese occupation experienced by his parents and his own flight from the Communists all find a place in Frank Leo's story of his family in China during the turbulent 20th century. Born in Shanghai, Leo fled to Hong Kong with his mother after the Red Guard came to power. He eventually studied architecture at UC and became head of a successful interior design firm in California. During China's revolution, Leo's family saw scores of handwritten manuscripts destroyed that had described 20 generations of ancestral history. While he couldn't begin to restore those documents, "Shanghai Remembrance" allows Leo to honor the Chinese tradition of the eldest son taking responsibility for recording his family's story.

Order information: Major Internet booksellers, local bookstores, American Literary Press


Second Chances
by Jeffrey Lueders, Eve '77 and '81, MA (A&S) '98
Snatched from the edge of death by lifesaving organ transplant surgery? This modern miracle happens fairly often today, giving grateful recipients the proverbial "second chance" at life. Lueders writes from experience -- he received a new heart in 1989 -- and tells stories of other survivors, valiant physicians and sorrowing families who generously allow their lost loved ones' organs to restore vitality to the waiting.

Order information: Borders Books,  Joseph-Beth Booksellers,  Jeffrey Lueders' web site, major Internet booksellers


 

Little Italy: May, Burbank & Boone

by Joe Martinelli, Eve '54

Blessed with an ability to recollect his growing-up years in hilarious detail, Martinelli has written this affectionate homage to the "Little Italy" community within Cincinnati's Walnut Hills neighborhood. He doesn't claim that life was easy in the years during and after the Great Depression and World War II, but says that for a boy growing up in those times, days were filled with another kind of richness. The things he recalls fondly include close family ties, true friends, playing sports, singing in amateur musicals, discovering girls, goofy misadventures, meeting girls, working after-school jobs and learning more about girls.

Martinelli, who now lives near Pittsburgh, was among authors honored at an Ohioana Library Association reception at Cincinnati's main library in 2004. His three-act musical, "Zoot Alley," about an unforgettable eighth-grade dance (an event also mentioned in his book) premiered in Lebanon, Ohio, in 2004. The script is available at UC Libraries.

Order information: Amazon.com, Borders Books, local and online booksellers

Walk of a Lifetime
by Alex Meacham, Univ '98

Very few high school basketball players have a chance to play in a college program as noteworthy as UC's -- especially as "walk-ons" -- but Alex Meacham did it in the 1997-98 and '98-99 seasons. Encouraged by UC professor and publisher Simon Anderson, Meacham tells his story of the power of hard work and determination. Currently, Meacham is assistant varsity basketball coach at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati.

Order information: Joseph-Beth Booksellers


Are Not My People Worthy?
by Wendell Mettey, A&S ‘68

Five million pounds of anything is hard to visualize, but a UC alumnus has directed that amount of humanitarian relief to poverty-stricken people every year since 1991. The story of Matthew 25: Ministries, a 14-year-old organization based in Cincinnati, is told in this small book.

Mettey, who earned his bachelor’s in economics at UC, was pastor of the Walnut Hills Baptist Church when he felt called to a different ministry. A visit to Nicaragua in 1990 revealed desperate conditions: crowded hospitals without medicines, soap or bedding, and dilapidated schools where children had no pencils or paper.

Nearly overwhelmed by the need, Mettey and some friends formed a not-for-profit organization and encouraged businesses to donate their unwanted, usable products, items that would otherwise be discarded. Even unlikely gifts, such as huge plastic sacks of soap, were not turned down; members divided the soap into small plastic bottles obtained from a different donor.

Named after Matthew 25: 34-40, Mettey’s ministry currently delivers basic necessities, skill development and disaster relief in the United States and 30 other countries.

Order information: Call 513-793-6256, go to http://www.providence-publishing.com



Limping Through the Twentieth Century
by Colter Rule, A&S '38
Limping cover There weren't many jobs available during the Depression -- even for college graduates. Colter Rule was happy to tutor a wealthy family's sons, even creating incentives to make their study as palatable as possible. When the grateful father asked Rule what he might do to help him, the young man was surprised to hear himself say he'd like to go to medical school. So he did.

With that candid admission, 91-year-old Dr. Rule's autobiography follows a long and winding path to his development into a distinguished psychiatrist and researcher. Though childhood polio left him with emotional as well as physical scars, he was blessed with a bright mind, an agreeable personality and an ability to write with humor and amazing detail.

It was as an intern at Cincinnati General Hospital that he discovered he genuinely enjoyed helping patients. He also learned that people who couldn't (wouldn't) pay a traffic fine got thrown into jail. The event became front-page news as the public found out that the $500 stipend interns were "paid" never saw their pockets; it went directly back to the hospital to pay for room and board. Rule became the interns' hero; they demanded better treatment, and got it.

Among other tales: Creating Siamese-twin rats for early hypertension studies. Witnessing the first use of drugs that could destroy germs without harming patients. Working alongside Nobel Prize winners and world-famous scientists at the "stuffy" Rockefeller Institute. Observing Dr. Helen Taussig, who could diagnose a child's cardiac condition through her gentle touch.

Order information: Beckham Publications, 1-800-431-1579 for credit card purchase, or send check/money order for $19.95 plus $3.50 shipping to: Beckham Publications Group Inc., PO Box 4066, Silver Spring MD 20914

Tales of an American Soldier
by Werner Von Rosenstiel, att. A&S '36

Cincinnati was the "turning point" in this German exchange student's life. In political science classes at UC, Von Rosenstiel first heard: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." It amazed a youth from Nazi-led Germany, where even speaking one's opinion could mean jail or death.

Although Werner studied law in Germany, as expected, he requested a month in the U.S. after graduation to improve his English. He didn't go back to Germany that year. When he returned, it was as an American soldier, the Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45. Later, he assisted prosecutors at the International War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg, where most of the Nazi leaders received death sentences or life in prison.

Von Rosenstiel's book is an intriguing story of honor and love in a time of horror. The author visited UC in 2001 to present a generous endowment to the history department, as well as his collection of books, documents and photographs that he hopes will help students understand "how it came that we would get a Hitler," he said. "Perhaps they can also learn how not to do it."

Order information: Major bookstores, local and online, or from http://www.authorhouse.com ISBN 0-7596-9339-0



The River Home
by Dorothy Weil, MA (A&S) '69, PhD (A&S) '74
River Home cover Author Weil's childhood with "mismatched" parents -- a roughneck Appalachian father and a proper Cincinnati Dutch mother -- was often as tumultuous as the rushing rivers they depended upon for their livelihood. When the riverboat captain lost his job in the 1930s, the family's fortunes plunged like the stock market, forcing them into dreary tenements or dependence on relatives.

Weil's wry storytelling keeps her "memoir" from sentimentality, and readers will enjoy the Coomer family's foibles, dreams and strengths. We hear mother drilling the children to "make something" of themselves and battling with father over accepting a Thanksgiving food basket. Dot and her brother, Jim, play Kick-the-Can, try to fit in at strange schools and marvel at their relatives' abundance of food and peculiarities. Eventually, good times return.

Before writing her book, Weil travelled the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi rivers to talk with old-timers who remembered her father and to reclaim her "river roots." She is an accomplished poet, novelist, TV producer and writer.

Order information: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble

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