The Faithful Servant: The Mysterious & Extraordinary Life of Officer Frank C. Smith - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

BOB RAVENER graduated from the United States Naval Academy, where he earned distinction as a leader, intercollegiate baseball player, and past president of his class. He served on active duty as a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy before transitioning to a career in business. Mr. Ravener also earned a master's degree in business administration from New York University.He has since served in executive roles in several top Fortune 200 corporations, including PepsiCo, Home Depot, Starbucks, and most recently, Dollar General, where he was the Chief People Officer until his retirement in 2019. During his time with Dollar General, the company grew to almost 16,000 stores and added approximately 65,000 jobs to the American economy. His first book, Up! The Difference Between Today and Tomorrow Is You was first published in 2013 and is available on Amazon.com.Mr. Ravener has also served on boards and commissions at the national, state, and local levels, including the President's National Hire Veterans Committee and the Secretary of Labor's Advisory Committee for Veterans Employment, Training, and Employer Outreach.He was chairman of the Tennessee State Workforce Development Board, a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Human Capital Advisory Council, and vice-chairman of the Franklin Civil War Historical Commission.Today, Mr. Ravener is a business owner and very active in his community. He serves on several non-profit boards, including Friends of Franklin Parks, the Downtown Neighborhood Association, and Franklin's Charge, and is a member of the American Legion and VFW. He lives in Franklin with Lisa, his wife of more than forty years, and has three grown children and four grandchildren at the time of this printing.

J. RODERICK HELLER is Chairman & CEO of Carnton Capital Associates, an investment firm in Franklin, Tennessee, and Harpeth Associates, a Tennessee LLC that developed a $105 million mixed-use project in downtown Franklin. He was a partner in the Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering law firm in Washington, D.C. from 1971-1982. Then, he served as Chairman and CEO of three successful corporate turnarounds, including NHP, Inc., the nation's then largest owner and manager of residential apartments. Mr. Heller was the founding Chairman of the Civil War Trust and Vice Chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He also served as Chairman of WETA, Washington's public radio and television station, and NCRC, the capital's then economic development corporation. Mr. Heller was also a director of numerous for-profit and nonprofit boards.He graduated from Princeton University, received a Master's in History from Harvard University, and graduated from Harvard Law School. His deep interest in history has led to three books, most recently Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest, published by LSU Press in 2010.

ROBBIE GRAYSON III was born into a military family in 1972, where his upbringing unfolded against the backdrop of Cold War Europe. Commencing elementary school in 1977 (Bitburg Elementary School) and culminating in a high school graduation in 1990 (Mehlingen Christian Academy) in former West Germany, Robbie's formative years were also marked by four transformative years in England (1983-1987). His experiences, deeply influenced by the geopolitical tensions of the era, fostered a curiosity about the world and a diplomatic outlook. While traveling Europe with his family and attending DOD (Department of Defense) and private American schools, Robbie encountered diverse individuals and witnessed significant historical events. The tumultuous late 1980s, in particular, left an indelible mark on his everyday worldview, as he experienced firsthand the repercussions of revolution, notably the Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the crumbling of Perestroika, and the eventual collapse of Communism.Following graduation from Pensacola Christian College in 1996 with a B.S. in Elementary Education, a minor in English Literature, and an eclectic concentration in psychology, Robbie founded the alternative education program Stone Table School in Franklin, Tennessee, where he dedicated himself to the minds of Music City's elite youth until 2011. Eventually launching Traitmarker, an online non-clinical psychometric platform, in 2007, he established Traitmarker Books, a book publishing company, in 2015, and Traitmarker Media, LLC, in 2023, where he represents authors for media opportunities.Robbie has been married to his wife, Sharilyn Suzette Smith-Grayson, a writer and educator, since 1997. Together, they have six children. They live in Franklin, Tennessee-"The Malibu of the South"-where Robbie maintains a grounded presence that can frequently be seen at a Starbucks in the historic district of Downtown Franklin.