[bio]

Bob Welch is a speaker, author, award-winning columnist and teacher.

He has keynoted conferences, workshops and retreats across America, and lately has been concentrating on medical events after the release of his book, American Nightingale (Simon & Schuster's Atria Books, June 2004). The book, heralded by Publishers Weekly as a "stirring story," is about the first nurse to die after the landings at Normandy. Among his six others books are A Father for All Seasons and Where Roots Grow Deep.

In his speaking engagements, Welch often uses the life of WWII nurse Frances Slanger to inspire people, partiuclarly those in the medical profession. A Jewish Polish immigrant, Slanger was continually told she couldn't make a difference in the world, but wound up inspiring thousands of American GIs with a beautiful letter she wrote — the night before she was killed in combat.

Welch is the general columnist for The (Eugene) Register-Guard, Oregon’s second-largest newspaper.

He has been honored four of the last five years by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. In addition, he has won dozens of journalism awards, including the Seattle Times C.B. Blethen Award for Distinguished Feature Writing and the Oregon Newspaper Publisher Association's “Best Writing” and "Best Column" awards.

In addition, articles of his have been published in more than a dozen books, including seven in the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

He has had articles published in such magazines as Los Angeles Times Magazine, Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated and Runner's World.

Welch serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon in Eugene.