Nat B. Read

Nat B. Read is a public relations consultant and author. As told in his autobiography, One Journey; Many Trails, he...

* was cast in a rock 'n roll movie; appeared with the NY Metropolitan opera

* was an exchange student to the USSR; arrested by the KGB

* was a Navy deck officer at the Vietnam Tonkin Gulf Incident

* rose to Navy captain in public affairs; declined promotion to rear admiral

* preached in small Presbyterian churches in Texas and Oklahoma

* marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; active in the civil rights movement

* published in The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Los Angeles Times and dozens of other periodicals

* has written books, TV dramas, plays, Country/Western songs

* one of his articles caused Mayor Richard J. Daley to kill Chicago Magazine

* made his living as a cartoonist, cab driver, Nevada casino worker

* was one of fewer than a hundred to stand at both the South and North Poles

* was an LAPD reserve cop working gang suppression in Watts, undercover vice in Hollywood, Downtown footbeats, riot duty, and patrol

* appeared as a stand-up comic at the Imrov, Comedy Store, Ice House and others

* was an officer of American High Speed Rail Corp., which got closer to construction than any U.S. high speed rail project before or since.

* was a PR strategist for numerous front-page Southern California issues, including the 710 Freeway completion, the light rail Gold Line construction and Old Pasadena development.

He grew up in Dallas, graduated from Austin College and now lives in Glendale and Del Mar, CA, with his wife, Linda. His business, Read Communications, is in Pasadena. He has two children: Kevin, an attorney/Ph.D. anthropology candidate and a daughter, Debbie, a pediatrician; and four grandchildren. He has served on numerous non-profit boards in Southern California and was a founding director of California General Bank.