Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom is an author and sports columnist. He was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and grew up in Oaklyn, New Jersey. He studied sociology at Brandeis University, where Morrie Schwartz was his professor, and graduated in 1979. He then earned master's degrees in journalism and business at Columbia University and paid part of his tuition by playing piano.

In 1985 he became the lead sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and he still writes for the paper. He also hosts radio programs and wrote sports books such as Fab Five.

In 1995 he saw Schwartz, who was dying of ALS, on ABC's Nightline, and went to visit him. The visits became a weekly meeting every Tuesday. Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) records their talks on love, work, family, aging and death. Albom wrote it partly to pay Schwartz's medical bills. It spent 205 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and has sold more than 20 million copies. Novels followed, starting with The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003). Albom lives in Detroit and runs an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.