Alvin 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. His next book, Spirit of Adventure, will be released in May 2009. 

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, 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. He lives in his hometown of Atlanta.