About the Book
This book is about the often exciting, frequently hazardous, always interesting life of William B. Foulk, the author. Upon return from the WW II, his father deserted his family, and they quickly drifted into poverty. Basketball coaches filled the void of not having a father, and Foulk became skilled enough in the game to be recruited by basketball coaches as early as his sophomore year in high school. However, his ambition was to be a Marine. After serving in Korea with the 1st Marine Division as a radio operator, he returned to the United States to become the radio operator on the Commondant of the Marine Corps, General Lemuel C. Shephard's airplane. After being a paratrooper, college student and a non-NBA professional basketball player, he went back into the service where he went from a private to a warrant officer in seven years. After serving and experiencing combat in Vietnam, Foulk became a teaching tennis professional where he established personal realationships with a bevy of politically important people and celebrities, including: Johnny Carson, Elton John, Joan Kennedy, Jessie Owens, John Erlickman, of Watergate noteriety; and many others. Foulk attended college, became an international caliber runner, a member of Nike's Elete Runner's group, won the Boston Marathon for his age group, won seven national titles, won two silver medals in the Masters' Track and Field World Championship. Foulk became a graduate student at Dartmouth College, a school teacher, a school principal in Alaska (where he narrowly escaped being eaten by a grizzily bear.); then to China where he taught in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanning, Guilin, and Kunming. Later in the Philippines and Thailand where he now resides half of each year, raising premium bananas and writing. He is currently working on a novel, Rogers, Rogers, and Rogers: Attorneys at Law.
About the Author: Born in Benton, Illinois in 1933, Bill Foulk spent his early years in a nomadic family with a father that had been a professional baseball player, high school coach, and a loyal member of the Ku Klux Klan. During World War II, when his father was in the military, Foulk concentrated on basketball. Before graduating from high school he joined the Marine Corps and the lst Marine Division. After Korea, Foulk became an aircrewman on the Marine Commandant's airplane. Following a stint in college on a basketball scholarship, he became an Army paratrooper, spent two years in Japan, returned to the U.S., and became the Army's Triathlon Champion. Recruited to play basketball by legendary coach Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky, Foulk passed up the opportunity and returned to Louisiana where he played a few games before joining a professional team in the Industrial League--the Baton Rouge Teamsters, owned by the Teamsters Union. His relationship with the Teamsters took on a bazzar character when unearned money flowed to him from at a part time job arranged by a Teamster official, Grady Parton. Foulk fled to the Air Force where he spent seven years before being appointed a warrant officer in the Army. Assignments to Korea, Germany, and finally to Vietnam, where he escaped two near death incidents. After retiring from the Army, Foulk became a teaching tennis professional and ultimately the Tennis Staff Supervisor, e.g., head professional, of John Gardiner's Tennis Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. There he became and aquantenance and/or friend of numerous VIPs, U.S. senators, Congressmen, movie stars, entertainment personallities such as Johnny Carson and Elton John, and people of notoriety like John Erlichman of Watergate fame. While in the tennis business Foulk became "addicted" to running, and ultimately became and international caliber masters marathon champion, winning numerous national championships and the Boston Marathon in his age group (50-54). After retiring from the tennis business, Foulk attended Montana State University, where he ran on the track team becoming the eldest NCAA athlete one year at the age of 48. After graduating from MSU with honors--without a high school diploma--he attended Dartmouth College for one semester as a graduate student. Opting to become a school teacher in a practicum developed by Dartmouth, Foulk taught English in New Hampshire, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Los Angeles, China, Thailand, and Philippines.
