Bob Greene
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Robert Bernard Greene Jr. (born March 10, 1947) is an American journalist and author. He worked for 24 years for the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' newspaper, where he was a
columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
. Greene has written books on subjects including
Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
,
Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
, and
U.S. presidents The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term Term may refer to: * Terminology, or term, a noun or compound word used in a specific context, in pa ...
. His book ''Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan'' became a bestseller.


Early life

Originally from
Bexley, Ohio Bexley is a suburban city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 13,928 at the 2020 census. Founded as a village, the city of Bexley is a suburb of Columbus, the Ohio state capital, situated on the banks of Alum Creek next ...
(a suburb of
Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...
), Greene attended
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
in
Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...
, and became a reporter and feature writer for the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' upon graduating in 1969, receiving a regular column in the paper within two years. Greene first drew significant national attention with his book ''Billion Dollar Baby'' (1974), a diary of his experiences while touring with
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
musician
Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
and portraying
Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...
during the show.


Newspaper column

Greene's primary focus remained his newspaper column, for which he won the
National Headliner Award National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...
for best column in 1977 from an American journalism group. Shortly afterward, Greene was hired by ''Chicago Tribune'' and began making occasional guest appearances on local television, eventually landing a commentary slot on the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
news program '' Nightline''. He also wrote the "American Beat" column in ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
''. In January 1980, Greene assisted Los Angeles Police in apprehending a man who had allegedly written letters to Greene as well as to police threatening to go on a killing spree. At that time Greene's column appeared in approximately 120 newspapers, including one in the Los Angeles community of Huntington Park where the letter writer lived. In the first week of January, Greene traveled to Los Angeles at the request of police. Through the use of his column, Greene gave out a phone number to his hotel room that the letter writer, who identified himself in letters as "Moulded to Murder", was to use to contact Greene. Police were able to trace the call and arrest the man at a payphone. Greene chronicled these events in his daily column as they occurred. In 1989, he asked Vietnam veterans if they had really been spat upon when they returned from overseas. The response was so overwhelming, he published a book—''Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam''— full of the letters he received. During the 1990s, Greene spent time covering Michael Jordan of the
Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
team, forming an unlikely friendship that Greene documented in two best-selling books. The movie ''Funny About Love'' (1990) was based on a Greene column. In 1993, his novel ''All Summer Long'' was published by Doubleday, and his columns are collected in several books. Though Greene was popular with readers, critics accused him of excessive sentimentality, heavy writing and repetitive coverage of the same subject, most notably the Baby Richard child custody saga. A therapist for the birth parents in the custody case, Karen Moriarty, claimed in the book ''Baby Richard: A Four-Year-Old Child Comes Home'' that Greene never spoke to the parents, although he covered the subject with 100 columns in which he strongly took the side of the adoptive parents. Greene claimed that the biological parents, the Kirchners, did not respond to his requests for interviews. The ''
Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
'' ran a derisive column, "BobWatch: We Read Him So You Don't Have To," penned pseudonymously by ''Chicago Sun-Times'' columnist
Neil Steinberg Neil Steinberg (born June 10, 1960) is an American news columnist for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and an author. He joined the paper's staff in 1987. Steinberg has written for a wide variety of publications, including ''Esquire'', ''The Washington ...
. Greene's experiences as a roadie for
Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
were parodied by comics writer
Steve Gerber Stephen Ross Gerber (; September 20, 1947 – February 10, 2008) was an American comic book writer and creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other works include ''Man-Thing'', ''Omega the Unknown,'' ''Marvel Spotlight:' ...
in the background of the villain Dr. Bong (real name: Lester Verde) in the 1970s
Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics * ...
comic ''
Howard the Duck Howard the Duck is a fictional Character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in ''Adventure into F ...
''. Critical coverage of Greene, which offered extensive coverage of his predilection for rewriting pop-culture press releases, was also featured in ''
Spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
'' magazine in a December 1988 article by Magda Krance, "You Wouldn't Want to Be Bob Greene". Krance characterized his output as "the journalistic equivalent of Tuna Helper".


Dismissal from the ''Tribune''

In September 2002 Greene was forced to resign from his newspaper column after admitting to an unconsummated extramarital sexual relationship 14 years earlier with a
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
student. The student had visited Greene at work for a school project and became the subject of one of his columns. Admission of the affair attracted considerable attention. Reports at the time stated that the woman had reached out to Greene and that he was alarmed enough by whatever she said to contact the FBI, which looked into the matter at a pre-investigative level and did not take any action afterwards. When the news broke, Greene had meetings with his bosses at the ''Tribune'' (he said later he was ordered not to bring a lawyer to one of them, with the ''Tribune'' stating they never said that) and offered to resign. He was surprised when the ''Tribune'' told him his resignation was accepted, and the paper publicly stated that he had been dismissed for "abusing his position for his own benefit" but did not provide details at that point. The full story, that he was basically told to leave and did so on non-criminal grounds, did not emerge fully until months later. The woman with whom Greene had a relationship was 17, legal age in Illinois, and had graduated from high school in the months between their first meeting and his invitation to take her out to dinner. Their sole hotel tryst was described in the ''Chicago Tribune'' as a "sexual encounter that stopped short of intercourse," and Greene told ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' that he demurred at going further, telling her, "You should wait to do this with someone you love." Four months after Greene's resignation from the ''Chicago Tribune'', his wife Susan died of heart failure following a month-long respiratory illness.


Current books

Greene did not return to newspaper or magazine journalism. He continues to write books and is a contributing writer to CNN.com. His 2006 book, ''And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Lifelong Friendship'', is a personal account of the illness and death of his lifelong friend Jack Roth at age 57. ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' reviewed it as follows:
Bestselling author Greene... looks back on his youth in Bexley, Ohio (pop. 13,000), where he and his four pals grew up together, calling themselves ABCDJ (for Allen, Bob, Chuck, Dan and Jack)... Greene met Jack in kindergarten, and they remained best friends for life. Remembering people and places they shared, the two revisit old haunts, discovering that their beloved
Toddle House Toddle House was a national quick service restaurant restaurant chain, chain in the United States, which specialized in breakfast but was open 24/7. Lunch and dinner entrées included soups and salads and various sandwiches. Much of their business ...
, where they once went for late-night chocolate pie, is now a Pizza Plus. Greene's repetitive, rambling free associations recall everything from his Halloween costume and old songs to ice cream parlors, state fairs and clothing fads. Unfortunately, the author's dusty attic of lost Americana is cluttered with clichés, nostalgia and overly sentimental yearnings.
His next book, ''When We Get to Surf City: A Journey through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams'', was released on May 13, 2008. It is a chronicle of a 15-year period when he intermittently toured with surf-rock musicians
Jan and Dean Jan and Dean was an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music style ...
, singing backup and playing guitar. His most recent book, ''Late Edition: A Love Story'' was released on July 7, 2009. In it, he wistfully chronicles his days as a copyboy and other apprentice positions at the ''
Columbus Citizen-Journal ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' was a daily morning newspaper in Columbus, Ohio published by the Scripps Howard company. It was formed in 1959 by the merger of ''The Columbus Citizen'' and ''The Ohio State Journal''. It shared printing facilit ...
'' and the ''
Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in 19 ...
''.


Awards and honors

In 1977, Greene won the National Headliner Award for writing the previous year's best column. In 1995, Greene was named
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
Journalist of the Year. In the same year he was awarded the
Peter Lisagor Award Peter Lisagor (August 5, 1915 – December 10, 1976) was Washington bureau chief of the ''Chicago Daily News'' from 1959 to 1976 and was one of the most respected and best-known journalists in the United States. Lisagor gained nationwide reco ...
for Public Service Journalism for his reporting on courts failing children in need.


Personal life

Greene has two children with Susan Koebel Greene.


Bibliography

*''Late Edition: A Love Story'' (St. Martin's Press, 2009) *''When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams'' (St. Martin's Press, 2008) *''And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Lifelong Friendship'' (William Morrow, 2006) *''Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents'' (Crown, 2004) (interviews with ex-presidents) *''Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen'' (William Morrow, 2002) *''Duty: A Father, His Son, And The Man Who Won The War'' (William Morrow, 2000) (half about his relationship with his father, half on
Paul W. Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the '' Enola Gay'' (named after his mot ...
) *''Notes on the Kitchen Table: Families Offer Messages of Hope for Generations to Come'' (Doubleday, 1998) (co-authored with his sister, D.G. Fulford) *''The 50-Year Dash: The Feelings, Foibles, and Fears of Being Half-a-Century Old'' (Doubleday, 1997) *''Chevrolet Summers, Dairy Queen Nights'' (Viking, 1997) (collection of columns) *''Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan'' (Viking, 1995) *''To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come'' (Doubleday, 1993) (co-authored with his sister, D.G. Fulford) *''All Summer Long'' (Doubleday, 1993) (novel) *''Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan'' (Doubleday, 1992) *''He Was a Midwestern Boy on His Own'' (Atheneum, 1991) (collection of columns) *'' Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam'' (Putnam, 1989) *''Be True to Your School: A Diary of 1964'' (Scribner, 1987) (reconstructed high-school diary) *''Cheeseburgers'' (Atheneum, 1985) (collection of columns) *''Good Morning, Merry Sunshine: A Father's Journal of His Child's First Year'' (Atheneum, 1984) *''American Beat'' (Atheneum, 1983) (collection of columns) *''Bagtime'' (Popular Library, 1977) (collection of columns written with
Paul Galloway Paul Galloway (1934 – February 2, 2009) was an American newspaper reporter, columnist and storyteller who wrote for both the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and the ''Chicago Tribune''. Galloway was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1934. His father s ...
, from the perspective of fictitious supermarket bagboy Mike Holiday, under which name the book was published; also turned into a stage play and TV movie) *''Johnny Deadline, Reporter'' (Nelson-Hall, 1976) (collection of columns and other journalism) *''Billion Dollar Baby'' (Atheneum, 1974) (account of roadie work for Alice Cooper) *''Running'' (Regnery, 1973) (journal of 1972 presidential campaign) *''We Didn't Have None of Them Fat Funky Angels on the Wall of Heartbreak Hotel'' (Regnery, 1971) (collection of columns and other journalism)


References


External links


"The Confessions of Bob Greene," ''Esquire'' article by Bill Zehme, April 2003 (full text)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Bob 1947 births Living people American columnists Bexley High School alumni People from Bexley, Ohio Chicago Tribune people Northwestern University alumni Writers from Chicago Chicago Sun-Times people Journalists from Ohio People from Greater Columbus, Ohio