“Step by step, –
e-mail by e-mail, readers are brought along on a marvelous adventure,” says Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Larson, UGA’s Talmadge Chair of Law and Russell Professor of American History. “Each posting ignited my imagination.”
The book he praises, Patrick S. Pittard’s Bearfoot: A Northbounder, is the true story of the author’s Appalachian Trail hike of more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine.
Pittard’s missives from his hike are detailed and written in a personable, familiar manner.
“Both knees and my back are scraped raw,” he writes. “I get squeezed. You hike between two high rock walls that get closer and closer together. Finally, they are inches apart. But with some nimbleness, you can jump up on a ledge and out. I am not nimble enough. I am stuck in the air with my legs dangling. Finally I push myself up enough to get a foothold.”
Pittard, Terry College of Business’s Distinguished Executive-in-Residence, is the former chairman and CEO of Heidrick and Struggles International Inc., the leading provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. He serves as vice chair of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
Pittard graduated from UGA in 1967 and was honored by the Terry College as a Distinguished Alumnus.
There’s another UGA connection to the book: students enrolled this past fall in a “Lessons in Leadership” course, offered through the Terry College’s Institute for Leadership Advancement, worked in teams to market the book. All proceeds from the sales they generated supported ILA programs.