Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

The World Trade Center, Manhattan 9/11/01 Being a hero has nothing to do with the way you look, and everything to do with the kind of person you are, during extraordinary circumstances. Seemingly ordinary people operating in extraordinary ways suddenly change. They became unmistakably different, even resolute in focus, as if on a mission.  Their are untold stories circulating around the tragedy that took place on September 11, in 2001. That most well-known stories are those of the fire fighters rushing up the stairs of the World Trade Center towers looking to get people out of the building, many of these fire fighters got trapped inside as they did their job. Paramedics and all kinds of official first responders placed their health in harms way as they rushed towards the disaster. Airborne debris-filled the air, and at the time of the chaos to help the injured, it was not known if the attacks would continue. Going forth into situations, predicaments and untenable envir...

Mr. Newlin's son on Mount Rainier, Dad took photo A while back I was fortunate to pin down an incredible Dad, Philippe Newlin. He has constantly transitioned and transformed himself across his life and I wanted to share a segment of his life, as well as his thoughts on skateboarding with the public. In and of itself, skateboarding helps us practice important life skills, which can be extrapolated across our life far away from the Olympic sport of skateboarding. Mr. Newlin’s story is quite interesting in that he has steadfastly kept up his mental prowess over the years, catapulting from one endeavor to another without skipping a beat.  Soft skills (which are ‘abstract’ life skills, like humility, perseverance, grit, tenacity) and cognitive executive function skills flexed in his youth on the streets of Manhattan seem to not have lost their mental-muscle power over the years. Mr. Newlin, manages a wine importing business in the United States for a family-owned compa...