Dr. Leo Buscaglia was an internationally known author of a series of best-selling books on loving and human relationships and a well loved lecturer.

He was an alumnus and a professor of special education and counseling at USC’s School of Education for nearly 20 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English and speech (1950), a master’s degree in language and speech pathology (1954) and a Ph.D. in language and speech pathology (1963) from USC.

In 1969, he taught a self-actualization course at USC. Love 1A begat Love, the first in a long series of Buscaglia best-sellers, including Personhood, Loving Each Other and Fall of Freddie the Leaf.

Leo Buscaglia was born on March 31, 1924. The son of Italian immigrants, he was reared in Los Angeles and didn’t learn to speak English until he entered primary school. His teachers mistook his fumbling language skills for mental retardation and placed him in a special education class. Under the tutelage of a caring teacher, he learned English and a lesson in compassion that would eventually lead him into a career as a speech therapist in Los Angeles-area public schools. Buscaglia served as supervisor of special education in Pasadena City Schools from 1960 to 1965. He then joined the USC School of Education faculty and taught special education and counseling at the university until 1984. After retiring from teaching, he served on the School of Education’s Board of Councilors. In 1989, Buscaglia gave real estate valued at $500,000 to USC.

Known as "Dr. Hug," he shook up the University of Southern California in the 1970s when he started classes on love, including "Love 101," combining sociology and psychology. His first book, Love, came out in 1972 and examined the phenomenon of human love as the one unifying force in life.

Dr. Buscaglia wrote more than a dozen books and sold more than 11 million copies in 20 languages. Among them were Loving Each Other and Living, Loving, and Learning. At one time, five of his books appeared on The New York Times best-seller list. His most recent book was Love Cookbook in 1994.

Dr, Buscaglia died of a heart attack June 11, 1998 at his home in Glenbrook, Nevada, near Lake Tahoe. He was 74. He will be missed by many, many people.

Please visit www.leobuscaglia.com for more information about Leo Buscaglia.

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A Start
by Leo Buscaglia

Each day, I promise myself not to try to solve all my life problems at once -- nor shall I expect you to do so;

Starting each day, I shall try to learn something new about me and about you and about the world I live in, so that I may continue to experience all things as if they had been newly born;

Starting each day, I shall remember to communicate my joy as well as my despair, so that we can know each other better;

Starting each day, I shall remind myself to really listen to you and to try to hear your point of view and to discover the least-threatening way of giving you mine, remembering that we are both growing and changing in a hundred different ways;

Starting each day, I shall remind myself that I am a human being and not demand perfection of you until I am perfect, so you're safe;

Starting each day, I shall try to be more aware of the beautiful things in our world -- I'll look at the flowers, I'll look at the birds, I'll look at the children, I'll feel the cool breezes, I'll eat good food -- and I'll share these things with you;

Starting each day, I shall remind myself to reach out and touch you, gently, with my words, my eyes and with my fingers, because I don't want to miss feeling you;

Starting each day, I shall dedicate myself again to the process of being a lover -- and then see what happens;

You know, I'm really convinced that if you were to define love, the only word big enough to engulf it all would be "Life" -- LOVE IS LIFE -- in all its aspects ... And if you miss love, you miss life !

Please don't !