Sully (Sullenberger) - Author Bio

Author Bios
Chester B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III
• Birth—January 23, 1951
• Where—Denison, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., U.S. Air Academy; M.S., Purdue; M.S., University of Northern Colorado
• Currently—lives in the San Francisco Bay Area of California


Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III is an American retired airline captain who works as an aviation safety consultant. He was hailed as a national hero in the United States when he successfully executed an emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan, New York City, on January 15, 2009, after the aircraft was disabled by striking a flock of Canada geese during its climb out from LaGuardia Airport. All 155 people aboard the aircraft survived and there were no personal injuries.

He is the co-author, with Jeffrey Zaslow, of the New York Times best-seller Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters (2009), a memoir of his life and of the events surrounding Flight 1549. His second book is Making a Difference: Stories of Vision and Courage from America's Leaders (2012). He was ranked second in Time's "Top 100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons of 2009," after Michelle Obama.

Background
Chesley Sullenberger was born in Denison, Texas. As a a child, according to his sister, he built model planes and aircraft carriers, and say his high school classmates developed a passion for flying from watching jets based out of Perrin Air Force Base. At 16, Sully learned to fly in an Aeronca 7DC from a private airstrip near his home—training, which he would later say, grounded his aviation career for the rest of his life.

Sullenberger entered to the United States Air Force Academy, where as a freshman, he was selected for a cadet glider program and, by the end of that year, became an instructor pilot. In 1973, his graduation year, he received the Outstanding Cadet in Airmanship award, as the class "top flyer."

Upon graduation, the Air Force immediately sent Sullenberger to Purdue University, where he obtained a Master's in industrial psychology. He later received another Master's, in public administration, at the University of Northern California.

In 1975, Sully earned his USAF Pilot wings. During the next five years—in Arizona, the UK, and Nevada—he served as a fighter pilot, a flight leader, and a training officer. He attained the rank of Captain and worked on his first aircraft accident investigation.

In 1980 he left the military and joined the civilian world where, for the next 30 years, he flew commercial airliners for US Airways. All told, over the span of his military and commercial piloting career, Sully has more than 40 years—clocking in at 20,000 hours—of flying experience. In 2007 he founded his own company, Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. a firm that consults on organizational safety, performance, and reliability.

Sully has also served as a member of investigations of aircraft accidents for both the USAF and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He has also been instrumental in developing and implementing the Crew Resource Management course used by US Airways, and he has taught the course to hundreds of airline crew members.

Flight 1549
On January 15, 2009, Sullenberger was piloting an Airbus A320 from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, when it struck a large flock of birds, disabling both engines. Unable to return safely to any nearby airport, he landed the plane in Hudson River.

The last to leave the aircraft, Sully made certain everyone had been evacuated before retrieving the maintenance logbook and leaving the plane. All passengers and crews survived uninjured.

Though he became an instant hero, Sullenberger was required to testify in an NTSB investigation. Amid questions as to whether he might have been able to return the plane to LaGuardia, Sully maintained there had been no time to execute the necessary maneuvers, which might have killed all on board as well as many more on the ground. The NTSB ultimately ruled that Sullenberger made the correct decision.

Accolades from every corner of the nation flowed in—a phone call from then President George W. Bush, an invitation to the inauguration of new President Barack Obama, resolutions by both houses of Congress, parades, medals, TV appearances, TV episodes, standing ovations at sports events, honorary memberships, keys to cities, baseball season's first pitch, and even songs.

Retirement
After 30 years service with US Airways and its predecessor, Sullenberger retired on March 3, 2010. His final flight was US Airways Flight Number 1167 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was reunited with his co-pilot Jeff Skiles and a half dozen of the passengers on Flight 1549. Sullenberger said that his advocacy for aviation safety and the piloting profession would continue.

Yet before he went, Sullenberger testified before the U.S. House of Representatives that his salary had been cut by 40 percent, and that his pension—like most airline pensions—was terminated and replaced by a "PBGC" guarantee worth only pennies on the dollar. He went on to caution that airlines were under pressure to hire people with less experience."

Their salaries are so low that people with greater experience will not take those jobs. We have some carriers that have hired some pilots with only a few hundred hours of experience.... There’s simply no substitute for experience in terms of aviation safety.

Personal
Sullenberger is married to fitness instructor Lorraine "Lorrie" Sullenberger, with whom he has two daughters. The Sullenbergers reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/15/2017.)

Jeffrey Zaslow
• Birth—October 6, 1958
• Where—Broomall, Pennsylvania, USA
• Death—February 10, 2012
• Where—Warner Twp., Michigan
• Education—B.A., Carnegie Mellon University
• Awards—Best Columnist Award; Distinguished Column Writing Award

Jeffrey Lloyd Zaslow was an American author and journalist and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Zaslow was widely known as coauthor of best-selling books including The Last Lecture (2008) with Randy Pausch; Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters (2009) with Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger; as well as Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope (2011) with Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. He was the sole author of numerous books, including Tell Me All About It (1990), The Girls from Ames (2009), and The Magic Room.

Early life
Zaslow was born in 1958 in Broomall, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, one of the four children of Naomi and Harry Zaslow. His father was a real estate investor. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980 with a degree in creative writing, Zaslow began his professional writing career at the Orlando Sentinel.

Career
When he was 29, Zaslow won a competition (with 12,000 applicants) held by the Chicago Sun-Times to replace the Ann Landers advice column. Later, he gained recognition as the for his own advice column called "All That Zazz" at the Wall Street Journal.

He was twice named Best Columnist (in a newspaper with more than 100,000 circulation) by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists as. He also received the Distinguished Column Writing Award from the New York Newspaper Publishers Association. While working at the Sun-Times in Orlando, Zaslow received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award. He appeared on such television programs as The Tonight Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, The Today Show and Good Morning America.

Personal
Zaslow married Sherry Margolis, a TV news anchor with WJBK television in Detroit, and together lived with their three daughters in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

Zaslow died on February 10, 2012, at age 53 in a car accident in Michigan while on tour for his non-fiction book The Magic Room. Former co-author Chesley Sullenberger was among those who eulogized Zaslow at his funeral on February 13.

Following his death, Zaslow was the subject of a number of written tributes, including an essay by columnist Bob Greene, titled Jeff Zaslow's last lesson, pieces by fellow journalists and by bloggers, posts on the Wall Street Journal remembrance page, and eulogies by family members on the family's remembrance page. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/15/2017.)