Best-selling author Alvin Townley risked everything on a dream when he
embarked on a odyssey to discover stories of leadership, service, and adventure
with a higher purpose. His travels have taken him around the world and led to his
nationally-acclaimed books, Legacy of Honor, Spirit of Adventure, and Fly Navy.

Alvin’s adventure truly began when he quit his job and sold his house to travel the
country and write his first book. His pursuit of inspiration has since taken him to the
halls of Congress, deep into Africa, into the skies over the Arabian Sea, through
Pacific coral reefs, to Rocky Mountain peaks, into corporate board rooms, and onto
five aircraft carriers in three oceans.

Townley has spent three years traveling throughout the country and around the world to explore the legacy of Scouting.  In an adventure spanning thousands of miles, he has met with adventurers and leaders from every field, all Eagle Scouts. In 2007, St. Martin’s Press released his widely-acclaimed first book, Legacy of Honor. 

To write Legacy of Honor, Alvin sold his home and left his job to travel the country and discover the legacy of America’s Eagle Scouts. Among those he met were Michael Bloomberg, Ross Perot, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, J.W. Marriott, Jr., and Jim Lovell of Apollo 13. He also met a Tuskegee Airman, a POW from Vietnam, a September 11 NYPD hero, a crew of Hurricane Katrina relief workers, Navy SEALs, Olympians and a host of others.

About Legacy of Honor, President Jimmy Carter said, “These Eagle Scouts will inspire readers to become leaders in serving others.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the book “inspirational.”

Since the book’s publication, Alvin has traveled coast-to-coast speaking to thousands about Scouting, character, and leadership.  In researching his second book, Spirit of Adventure, he circled the world, diving in Australia, surfing in Hawaii, rock climbing in Nevada, working with Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, and cruising aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

An Eagle Scout himself, Alvin graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, interned in the U.S. House of Representatives, served on the executive staff of an 85,000-person international consulting firm, and coached high school track and field. His presentations have inspired thousands of people in more than seventy cities across North America.He lives in his hometown of Atlanta.