Samuel Grier

Sam has led an exciting life.

His first memories are of Hawaii, where he spent four carefree years in elementary school before Hawaii became a state. His family of six roamed Oahu in a blue 1955 Volkswagen Beetle, beach combing and spending life in Waikiki, Kailua, Schofield Barracks, Kaneohe and Pearl Harbor.

Growing up, Sam played trumpet as a member of his High School marching band. Was a paperboy. Played Little League baseball. Lifted weights. Wrestled. And studied hard.

He has a BS from the Air Force Academy, a Masters Degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and a PhD from the University of Texas in Austin — all in Computer Science. He was an Air Force pilot, speechwriter, twice served in periods of conflict in 24/7 organizations dedicated to crisis management, and ended his Air Force career as Head of the Air Academy’s Department of Computer Science, which founded the Academy’s information warfare lab. Sam worked as a Command and Control expert with the Institute for Defense Analyses and the MITRE Corporation, and served as both a Faculty member and Dean of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Defense College in Rome, Italy. He and his wife lived in Europe for over 10 years, and Sam has paid official visits to over 25 countries.

Rome is Sam’s favorite city, where he and his wife spent 5 glorious years living on the Aventine Hill on via San Domenico and the Piazza di Diana. While there, they repeatedly viewed the Cathedrals of Rome and the work of the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Caravaggio. They even named their Golden Retrievers, Tiberius and Da Vinci, after an emperor and an artist.

One of his fondest memories while working as the College Dean was a visit to Egypt, where he saw the Sphinx and was allowed to climb the maze to the Great Pyramid’s innermost chamber.

A thread woven through all these life adventures was Sam’s desire to write, and they became the building blocks for his stories. Sam was always trying to find time to write the stories that filled his head, and he did it mostly in the margins of a busy life working, raising a family, and moving to wherever his job sent him.

Now — with a series of novels comprising four thrillers, the last a dip into Science Fiction — and two non-fiction books about events in his life — all penned in the margins — he has finally left the workaday world. Sam hopes to migrate his writing from the edges of his life into the mainstream.

The fifth novel of his series is dancing in Sam’s head. A book of short stories about Italy is to be published with his wife. And there are other tales clamoring to be told!