Felice
Leonardo "Leo" Buscaglia PhD (March 31, 1924 – June 12, 1998), also
known as "Dr. Love," was an American author and motivational speaker, and a
professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern
California.
Felice Leonardo Buscaglia
was born in Los Angeles, CA on March 31, 1924 into a family of Italian
immigrants. He spent his
early childhood in Aosta, Italy, before going back to the United States for
education. He was a
graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School (Los Angeles). After Navy service in World War II, Buscaglia entered
the University of
Southern California, where he earned three degrees
(BA 1950; MA 1954; PhD 1963) before eventually joining the faculty. Upon retirement, Buscaglia was named
Professor at Large, one of only two such designations on campus at that time.
While teaching at USC,
Buscaglia was moved by a student's suicide to contemplate human
disconnectedness and the meaning of life, and began a non-credit class he
called Love 1A.[1] This became the basis for his first book, titled simply LOVE. His
dynamic speaking style was discovered by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and
his televised lectures earned great popularity in the 1980s. At one point his
talks, always shown during fund raising periods, were the top earners of all
PBS programs. This national exposure, coupled with the heartfelt storytelling
style of his books, helped make all of his titles national Best Sellers; five
were once on the New York Times Best Sellers List simultaneously.
Buscaglia died of a heart
attack on June 12, 1998 at his home in Glenbrook, Nevada, near Lake
Tahoe. He was 74.
0 comments:
Post a Comment