SCHOOL DAYS II

About the Book

SCHOOL DAYS II is the second part of an autobiography that began with School Days: Coming of Age in the Mid-20th Century (available at on-line booksellers). Although it primarily focuses on the author's personal life, it begins by describing the turmoil associated with him joining the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh. He describes "debates" with Bill Gates, Milton Friedman, Senator Barry Goldwater and Vladimir Putin, travels around the world, several unique vacations and how his kids were able to maneuver him into getting an unwanted cat and dog and building an outdoor swimming pool in a cold-weather city. Two near-death experiences figure prominently--one involving SCUBA-diving in the Caribbean while breaking the rules of diving and one an overnight "lost-at-sea" incident in Maine. King describes himself as a pathological second-home acquirer leading him to becoming a farmer, learning to ski at an advanced age, acquiring a gas leasehold in the Marcellus Shale, sailboat, powerboat, all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile adventures and losing two homes to vandal-set fires.

About the Author

William R. King's previous autobiographical book, School Days: Coming of Age in the Mid-20th Century, available at online booksellers, roughly covered the first thirty years of his life. This one, School Days II, extends the coverage for about another ten years, beginning after his formal education and military service were done and he was about to embark on a 41-year career that would place him in the top ranks of academics, professional society leadership and business consulting. He has authored 17 books that have appeared in many languages and editions, and over 400 articles, op-eds and columns in a wide variety of professional and popular journals, magazines and newspapers. His contributions have been recognized by the Association for Information Systems' Leo Award for lifetime achievement, the McKinsey Foundation's book award for a "seminal contribution to management" and designation as one of about a hundred people, including several Nobel Laureates, who most impacted the fields of Operations Research and Management Science in their first fifty years.