Thomas B SpeakerThomas B. Speaker was born in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1939. He graduated from West Lafayette High school and felt he was not ready for college. He joined the US Army and soon realized he was not ready for the army. However, he survived and completd his military career in Hawaii. Based on this experience he wrote, 'The Battle of Waikiki.'After the 'famous' battle he returned to West Lafayette and attended Purdue University where he holds three degrees. After graduation from college Tom traveled the state of Indiana as a teacher, guidance director, and basketball coach.Tom retired from education in 1986 and founded Speaker's Travel and Lion and Lamb Journeys. Tom with his wife Rosemary have been doing international tours and pilgrimages for 36 years.At the young age of sixty-eight he wrote and had published his first novel, 'The Battle of Waikiki.' He has also written, 'The Coach, ' which covers over 40 years of a fictional legendary basketball coach. Then came 'Born to Sing, ' a story of the 50's rock and roll era, and a historical fiction book, 'Here Come the Pennsylvania Dutch, ' which is based on his Speaker (Spycker) family emigrating from Germany in the early 18th century and settling in Berks County, Pennsylvania.Tom then wrote a non-fiction book, 'Travels with Tom and Rosemary, ' which relates the story of their 36+ years in the travel business. His sixth novel is 'From the Cornfields of Indiana to the Sands of Iwo Jima.' This is a historical novel of WWII in the South Pacific. Although the historical facts are well researched it is more about the young Marines who graduate from schools in rural Indiana in May of 1941. Soon they are on the front lines of the battles in islands of the South Pacific and in the Philippines. One of the Hoosier Marine's becomes a Marine aviator and flies with Jimmy Doolittle in the air-raid upon Japan.The most recent book, 'Private Sampson, ' is a re-write of his first novel 'The Battle of Waikiki, ' which is no longer in print due to the closing of the publishing house. Although a re-write, it is different from the original with extensive editing and additional chapters.Tom is married to Rosemary Cassidy Speaker and they have three sons, Thomas, Jonathan, and Brian and now also have seven grandchildren. Read More Read Less