Michael McFerrin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael McFerrin was raised in a small mining town in the Arizona desert nearly 50 miles from Tucson. In 1967, he joined the Marine Corps and received training in the South Vietnamese language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. His variety of job titles while in Vietnam included “and interpreter”, which gave him a multi-faceted perspective of the war and life.

As a civilian, he graduated a second time from the Defense Language Institute in North Vietnamese to enhance his ability to provide assistance to refugees in their plight to get relatives safely out of Vietnam and into the United States.

Michael’s experiences led to his humanitarian commitment and to form the company, Communication And Language Line in 1982, the first over-the-phone interpretation service. This company quickly linked to the young and growing 911 systems and emergency service responders across the U.S. It then successfully expanded into other areas of society. A multi-billion dollar industry grew from this innovation.

A four book series, The Story of Communication And Language Line (CALL), documents his, and many others’ paths to the creation of this successful company. GRID is his first published work.

He resides in Minnesota.