Happyness Author, Inspiration for Movie, to Speak at University of Arkansas

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Chris Gardner, author of The Pursuit of Happyness

Chris Gardner, who chronicled his journey from homeless father to millionaire stockbroker in his autobiography The Pursuit of Happyness, will speak at the Walton Arts Center at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, as part of the University of Arkansas Distinguished Lecture Series. The event is free, the public is welcome but tickets are required.

Tickets will be available at the Walton Arts Center box office and at the Campus Life Center, room A665 in the Arkansas Union, starting on Tuesday, Nov. 9. No identification is required, but there is a limit of two tickets per person. Seating is limited to 1,200 people, and tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Gardner’s life story was published in 2006 and was a best seller in both hardback and paperback editions. It has been translated into 14 languages and inspired the 2006 movie of the same name.

In 2009 Gardner published his second book, Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

Gardner’s life started in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1954, and his childhood was marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcohol abuse and frequent stays in foster homes. Despite these hardships he credits his mother for teaching him “that in spite of where he came from, he could chart another path and attain whatever goals he set for himself.”

Gardner finished high school and spent four years in the Navy before moving to San Francisco. He was working as a medical supply salesman when a simple event changed his life: he saw a well-dressed man get out of a bright red Ferrari; when he learned the man was a stock broker he decided that was the career he wanted for himself.

Realizing that dream took epic determination, and Gardner had to overcome many obstacles. By the time he landed a trainee’s position at Dean Witter Reynolds his savings were gone, his wife had left him and he was trying to raise his 18-month-old son on his own. During the year he worked as a trainee he was essentially homeless: eating in soup kitchens, moving with his son from homeless shelter to flophouse and even to public restrooms at a city train station. His struggles and hard work paid off: after that year he passed his broker’s exam and was hired full time at Dean Witter Reynolds. Within months he was recruited to a position at Bear Stearns; four years later he left to form his own brokerage firm, Gardner Rich LLC, in Chicago.

Gardner has made a point throughout his career to use his financial success to help others, and to support the organizations that helped him in his struggles. He has donated time and money to projects that provide job opportunities and low-income housing in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. He also provides financial support to the church that gave him shelter when he most desperately needed it. He provides permanent job placement assistance, career counseling and job training for the homeless and at-risk communities in Chicago. Gardner serves on the board of the National Fatherhood Initiative, the National Education Foundation and the International Rescue Committee. He has received numerous humanitarian awards.

Gardner remains a successful businessman, but in his work, his writing and his speaking engagements he says that his foremost goal is to help others achieve their full potential.

The Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Arkansas is a student-sponsored event. The speaker is chosen by a student committee and the event is funded by a student-approved fee. Past speakers have included Anderson Cooper, Magic Johnson and former President George H.W. Bush.