Perseverance - Continue to work hard and persist toward the goal even when obstacles and difficulties arise.

Fred Bowen’s birthday is on August 3rd.

Fred grew up in Massachusetts with four big brothers and two sisters. He played a lot of sports, including Midget Football and second base on the Pirates Little League team. His brothers were his teammates in backyard football and “driveway basketball.”

Fred graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a major in U.S. and world history. He went on to earn a law degree at George Washington Law School. Fred then met and married his wife, Peggy, and had two children. He worked as a government lawyer for more than 30 years, and still managed to coach more than 30 recreational kids’ sports teams.

He was inspired to write sports books for kids as he was reading sports books to his son. Further inspiration came as his son suggested more play-by-play action–more games in his books. He also uses his vast knowledge from hundreds of books, newspaper stories and magazine articles and a love for history–especially sports history – in his books and columns. Fred includes his research as a bonus historical chapter in his books as well as the KidsPost columns that feature sports history. He has written over 19 books in addition to his column, which can be found at www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost

Fred lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his wife, Peggy, and dog named Matty (after Baseball Hall of Fame, Christy “Matty” Mathewson). Their son is a pitching coach on a college team, and their daughter works for a nonprofit in Chicago.