UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 22, Page 1
March 3, 1994
Best-selling author Clancy to address June graduates

     Best-selling author Tom Clancy will deliver the Commencement address
in Delaware Stadium Saturday, May 28, before members of the University's
graduating class of 1994 and their families and friends.
     The announcement was made yesterday by Robert R. Davis, director of
alumni and University relations.
     "Mr. Clancy has been willing to make only a very few public speaking
appearances," Davis said, "and we're very pleased that the University of
Delaware has been successful in attracting him."
     Clancy is author of a series of best-selling novels, including The
Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, The Cardinal of the
Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears and Without
Remorse.
     Clancy, who majored in English and served in ROTC at Baltimore's
Loyola College and dreamed of writing a novel, initially made his living as
an insurance agent. Before writing his first novel, The Hunt for Red
October, his only literary effort was an article on the MX missile crisis
in the naval journal, Proceedings.
     In 1984, his first novel was published in hard cover by the Naval
Institute Press, which had never before issued a work of fiction. The book
sold briskly and received rave reviews, then catapulted onto The New York
Times' Bestseller List. The novel ended up selling over 500,000 copies in
hard cover and 2 million in paperback and has been translated into a number
of foreign languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and
Chinese.
     Interestingly, when he wrote his spell-binding tale of a submarine
cat-and-mouse game, Clancy had never been on a submarine. The technical
information was gained through such books as Combat Fleets of the World and
A Guide to the Soviet Navy.
     Clancy's grasp of the material was such that everyone, from critics to
military intelligence experts, hailed The Hunt for Red October for its
uncanny accuracy.
     All of Clancy's books have sold in the millions and ranked first on
The New York Times ' Bestseller List for both paperback and hard cover
fiction.
     The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games have both been made into
successful motion pictures.
     The father of four, Clancy and his family make their home in rural
Maryland.