John Cassidy is the chief executive and co-founder of

Klutz Press Klutz is a publishing company started in Palo Alto, California in 1977. It was acquired by Nelvana in April 2000, and became a subsidiary of Scholastic Inc. in 2002. The first Klutz book was a how-to guide titled ''Juggling for the Complete Klut ...

and author of over 200 instructional and children's books, including ''

Juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

for the Complete Klutz'', ''The Klutz Book of Inventions'', and ''The Klutz Book of Brilliantly Ridiculous Inventions''. Cassidy attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where he studied English and Education.Klutz – Klutz History
While at Stanford he also became a friend of Darrell Lorentzen and B.C. Rimbeaux, with whom he would eventually found

. In 1977, while working as a student teacher at a high school in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...

, Cassidy began his career as a juggling pedagogue by handing out 75 tennis balls to his sophomore remedial-reading class, along with instructions on juggling.A "klutz" who knows kids - Klutz Press - Company Profile , Nation's Business , Find Articles at BNET.com
Pleased with his students' response, Cassidy, along with his college friends Lorentzen and Rimbeaux, wrote and published ''Juggling for the Complete Klutz''. The book did well, selling 50,000 copies by the end of 1978. That same year Cassidy, Lorentzen, and Rimbeaux co-founded

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. Cassidy has remained the chief executive and "creative force" of the company since its founding. In that time he has written over 200 books for Klutz. ''Juggling for the Complete Klutz'', the company's most popular title, has sold over 2.5 million copies. In May, 2006, the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose awarded Cassidy the seventh annual Legacy for Children Award, which honors "an individual or organization whose work has significantly benefited the learning and lives of children." Previous awardees included

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Bil Keane William Aloysius "Bil" Keane (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011) was an American cartoonist most notable for his work on the newspaper comic ''The Family Circus''. It began in 1960 and continues in syndication, drawn by his son Jeff Kea ...

, and

Fred Rogers Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), commonly known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television se ...

.CDM - Legacy for Children Award-Ronnie Lott 2008
/ref> In 2018, Cassidy became a board member of the nonprofit rafting company, ARTA River Trips.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassidy, John American book publishers (people) Living people Jugglers American instructional writers American children's writers The Kinkaid School alumni Year of birth missing (living people)