"You have a gift,” John Hart ’84 told Woodberry’s student body on September 20, 2010, “and that is your youth.”  The bestselling author of The Last Child, a novel the entire community was assigned for summer reading, Hart returned to campus for the first time since his graduation, bringing stories of his own life and inspiration for theirs, to an all-school assembly and to numerous English classrooms.

“I spent my twenties looking for my calling,” he recounted as he told the boys of his many adventures and abandoned careers.  After earning a degree in French literature from Davidson College, he flew helicopters, sailed around the world, and lived in several countries, eventually becoming an accountant and finally settling on studying the law.  But his true passion was always at the back of his mind:  he wanted to write a book.  It took a couple of failed attempts before he wrote King of Lies, the book that garnered him a publisher; his subsequent two mysteries won the coveted Edgar Award.

Widely enjoyed by students, The Last Child grew partially from John’s time at Woodberry.  “In order to create the characters of Johnny and Jack,” the author explained, “I had to dig deeply into my own memories of childhood, much of which was spent here at Woodberry.”

John urged his audience to follow their own passions.  “Are you going to be forty-five years old,” he asked, “and love what you are doing?”  From the smile on his face, it is obvious that John Hart is one of those lucky enough to say that he does.