Leo Buscaglia Essay, Research Paper
About the Felice Foundation
Many years ago, while traveling in Hong Kong, Leo Buscaglia met a Chinese refugee who, with his family, lived in extreme poverty. The young refugee’s name was Wong. In order to find work, Wong needed to learn English. Dr. Buscaglia paid Wong’s tuition to an English-language school.
Years later, Wong wrote to Dr. Buscaglia. By then he was sufficiently employed to get his family out of the refugee camp. He was also prepared to pay back what he saw as his “debt.” Instead, Dr. Buscaglia encouraged him to find another determined person such as himself and to give the money, with love, from Wong and Leo, with the hope that in this way it might touch many lives.
In 1984, Dr. Buscaglia founded the Felice Foundation. Felice (pronounced Feh-LEE-Chay) is an Italian word for peace and joy and, incidentally, Dr. Buscaglia’s first name. He established the Foundation to give special aid and attention to those who have dedicated themselves to the betterment of personkind through the dynamics of helping one another. As in his experience with Wong, the Foundation is structured around the dynamics of sharing and giving, and influencing others to do the same, the roles of helper and helped constantly interchanging.
Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.
Leo Buscaglia
The specific purpose of the foundation is to encourage and reinforce socially contributive behaviors where the focus is clearly outside the “self,” looking instead toward the welfare of others and the community. It is directed to recognize and reward the softer side of human nature through the giver, the sharer, the nurturer, the empathizer, the sympathizer. It is hoped that this will encourage a movement away from egocentricity and competitive actions to the encouragement of love, interdependence and commitment.
Love is only love when it liberates. Leo Buscaglia S A N F R A N C I S C O June 12 Author Leo Buscaglia, whose books Love and Loving Each Other helped pioneer the touchy-feely self-help movement, died today of a heart attack, a spokesman for his publisher said. He was 74. Leo Buscaglia(C. Steven Short/Tahoe Daily Tribune)
Buscaglia, who earned a reputation as the “King of the Hug” for embracing avid audience members at the end of his feel-good lectures, died at around 1:45 a.m. at his home near Lake Tahoe, Nev., said Patrick Duffy, director of corporate marketing for Slack Inc., a New Jersey publisher. Buscaglia’s books sold more than 11 million copies and helped build the multimillion-dollar self-help book business, which now comprises such authors as Deepak Chopra, John Bradshaw and John Gray. Self-help books accounted for 6.2 percent of the U.S. book market in 1996, according to the American Booksellers Association. “It is when we ask for love less and begin giving it more that the secret to human love is revealed to us,” Buscaglia wrote in 1992’s Born for Love. “Any action that inhibits is not love,” the author also said. “Love is only love when it liberates.” Freddie the Leaf Buscaglia’s first book, Love, was published in 1972 and has never been out of print, his publisher said. His books are available in 19 languages and 24 editions, and his latest book was Love Cookbook, released in 1994. One of his books, The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, was adapted to audio cassette, an educational film and a one-hour ballet. It explor
Buscaglia, author, preacher of love, dead at 74
GLENBROOK, Nev. (AP) – Leo Buscaglia, the bearded, best-selling author who preached love and ended his motivational speeches with bear hugs for the audience, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 74.
Buscaglia, a California educator, wrote “Loving Each Other” and “Living, Loving and Learning.” His first book, “Love” in 1972, examined the phenomenon of human love as the one unifying force of life.
He died of a heart attack at about 1:45 a.m. Friday at his home on the shores of Lake Tahoe, said Pat Duffy, director of corporate marketing for Slack Inc., a publisher in Thorofare, N.J.
A joyful, dynamic speaker, Buscaglia became known as “Dr. Hug” for ending his lectures by hugging all members of the audience who would line up for the embrace.
He shook up the academic world at the University of Southern California in the 1970s, when he started classes on love, including “Love 101,” combining the teachings of sociology and psychology.
Buscaglia wrote more than a dozen books that have sold more than 11 million copies in 20 languages. At one time, five of his books appeared on the New York Times best-seller list concurrently. His latest release in 1994 was “Love Cookbook.”
The University of Southern California, where he taught for 19 years, honored him in 1991 by establishing the Leo F. Buscaglia Scholarship for Inner City Teachers Education.
“The entire university mourns the loss of a truly great friend and pioneer in his field. He has been contributing to USC in numerous ways for more than 40 years,” USC School of Edcucation Dean Guilbert C. Hentschke said today.
“Through this endowed scholarship fund, his love for teaching and his fellow human beings will impact inner city children forever,” he said.
At a lecture in Denver with civil rights activist Dick Gregory in 1991, Buscaglia said that death “is only morbid if you never lived.”
One of his books, “The Fall of Freddie the Leaf,” was adapted to audio cassette, educational film and a one-hour ballet. It explored the delicate balance between life and death in a thought-provoking story about how Freddie and his companion leaves change with the passing seasons and the coming of winter.
Buscaglia got his start as a supervisor of special education in the Pasadena city schools from 1960-65 and served as a professor of education at the University of Southern California from 1975-84.
He recently had been named a contributing editor to Positive Living magazine. Public Broadcasting Service uses his taped lectures as fundraising tools.
In a 1986 interview, Buscaglia attributed the popularity of his books to the reputation he built before becoming an author.
“I’ve spoken in every state in the union, meeting and hugging the people who later bought my books,” he said. “I spoke to anybody who wanted to hear me, including 1,000 nuns who could pay me only with homemade bread.”
In Memory of Dr. Leo Buscaglia
March 31 1924 – June 12, 1998