To LifeSpirals, I bring 30 years of experience as an author, editor, teacher, minister, and marketing analyst.

I've worked with some of the nation's leading publishers, and I took notes from some of the world's bestselling authors and editors, philosophers and theologians, political leaders and communicators.

Before that, I spent 24 years in school, including eight years of graduate work. I explored the history of ideas, human behavior, child and adult development, spiritual growth, and the major paradigm shifts our culture has gone through which, unknown to most people, are the decisive influences on their decisions and values.

Most people put their education in reverse order. I prefer to list them the way they happened:

1944-51. Maccochaque Elementary School, Kansas City, Kansas.
1952-57. Rosedale Junior-Senior High School, KCK.
1957-58. KCK Community College.
1958-61. Abilene Christian University, 1958-1961. B.A. in 1961.
1961-63. Abilene Christian University Graduate School of Religion, M.A. degree in 1963.
1963-66. Harvard Divinity School. M.Div. degree in 1966.
1969-72. University of Tübingen , Germany. Post-graduate research in the history of ideas.
2006-07. Oklahoma Health Center Clinical Pastoral Education Institute, Oklahoma City. Chaplain resident;
Board certification by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy

My studies of the great leaders of the past and present, and the cutting-edge research of today, made me an eyewitness to historic breakthroughs in the ways change takes place.

Together these studies and experiences have given me the ideas and the personal examples which fuel the books I'm write and the in-person events I hold.

Since June 2, 1962, I've been married to Carole Stone Straughn, an early childhood specialist for 30 years before recently starting a new career in medical technology as a cytologist for UroCor. We have two children, Jeremy Straughn, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago, and Joanna Straughn Gener, a graduate student in literature at the University of Utah.

I'm a native of Kansas City, and I moved to Oklahoma City in 1997 from St. Louis MO. I've also lived in Brightwaters, NY, while commuting to NewYork City. I spent 15 years in Texas, living in Abilene three times, and also in Austin, and Waco. I've spent three-year stints in Boston, MA, and Tübingen, Germany.

Since 1986 I've been an ordained minister of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I grew up in the Churches of Christ and was editor of its largest periodical, Christian Chronicle, in the 1960s, and producer of its largest TV and radio ministry, Herald of Truth, in the 1970s. You could say that, with an Arbitron-rated viewership of over 1 million weekly, that was the largest congregation for my teaching.

Books I've authored eight books. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE