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Jim Eisenreich
Billy Staples
After a childhood spent on sandlots and in Major League clubhouses, in 1993 Billy Staples graduated Phi Beta Kappa from East Stroudsburg University and became an inner city English t...view moreBilly Staples
After a childhood spent on sandlots and in Major League clubhouses, in 1993 Billy Staples graduated Phi Beta Kappa from East Stroudsburg University and became an inner city English teacher in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Over the next 13 years he used his friendships with ballplayers and their willingness to sign autographs as a motivational technique to get his students to come to school, behave, and do their work. Billy told each student, “I don’t teach Monday through Friday or September through June. I’ll teach you nights, weekends, summers and the rest of your life if you are willing to learn.”
Billy was twice nominated for Disney’s National Teacher of the Year award. His groundbreaking work helping troubled kids fix their lives and make it to college was featured in a five-part series on CNN. Staples sits on the board of BEST, a college scholarship organization he helped start under the guidance of Linny Fowler and Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. BEST has helped over forty at-risk, financially challenged students from the Lehigh Valley, PA/ Phillipsburg, NJ area to attend and pay for college. Staples’s friendship with Jack Canfield has also helped what was once just an idea for a motivational book series to come to fruition as Before the Glory, the book he and Rich Herschlag completed in 2007. In the foreword to the book Canfield wrote, “Billy is a living example of The Success Principles and The Secret,” both of which have sold millions of copies.
Since then, Billy has toured the U.S. and several Latin American countries to spread his positive message. He and Rich Herschlag have, meanwhile, extended their range by co-writing an inspirational baseball column. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Billy completed his master’s degree in education and administration at East Stroudsburg University.
Billy Staples can be reached for personal appearances at www.billystaples.com or on Facebook.
Rich Herschlag
Rich Herschlag’s published books include Jack of All Trades (Northwest, 1994), Lay Low and Don't Make the Big Mistake (Simon & Schuster, 1997), The Interceptor (Ballantine, 1998), Women Are From Manhattan, Men Are From Brooklyn (Black Maverick, 2002), and Before the Glory (HCI, 2007).
Lay Low, a humorous but practical guide to gliding through corporate America on minimal effort, resulted in over 175 radio and TV interviews across the country. The book was the subject of a feature article in USA Today, highlighted in Reader’s Digest, and quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Lay Low was also translated into Chinese.
The Interceptor, a political and environmental thriller set above and below the streets of New York, was reviewed favorably by numerous publications including the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post.
Herschlag’s forthcoming book, Sinatra, Gotti and Me, co-written with Tony Delvecchio, is a firsthand account of Delvecchio’s tumultuous years running Jilly’s, the legendary New York nightclub.
Rich Herschlag earned a bachelor’s degree in science and engineering from Princeton University in 1984. In 1991 he received his license as a professional engineer from the State of New York and went to work as Chief Borough Engineer for the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, where he stayed until early 1995. Since then he has run a consulting business, Turnkey Structural, that specializes in the rehabilitation of older residential and commercial buildings. The website is www.turnkeystructural.com
Herschlag lives in Easton, PA, with Susan, his wife of twenty-two years, and their daughters Rachel, 17, and Elise, 12.view less