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Robert Byrne
Robert Byrne
Born	(1930-05-22)May 22, 1930 Dubuque, Iowa, United States
Died	December 6, 2016(2016-12-06) (aged 86)
Occupation	Author
Language	English
Education	Bachelor of Science
Alma mater	University of Colorado
Period	1969–2016
Genre	Thriller, Collections of quotations, Billiards instruction
Notable works	Memories of a Non-Jewish Childhood, 1970 Byrne's Standard Book of Pool & Billiards, 1978 Thrill, 1995
Notable awards	BBIA Industry Service Award, 1994 BCA Hall of Fame (Meritorious Service), 2001
Spouses	Josefa Heifetz (1958–1976; div.) Cynthia Nelms (1991–2016; his death)
Website
www.byrne.org

Robert Leo Byrne (/bɜːrn/; May 22, 1930 – December 6, 2016) was an American author and Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame instructor of pool and carom billiards.

Early life and education

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Robert Leo Byrne, son of Tom and Clara (née Loes) Byrne, was born on May 22, 1930, and raised in Dubuque, Iowa. He attended St. Columbkille's elementary, Loras Academy, and Loras College.

He left Dubuque to attend Iowa State University, where his first sign of talent as a writer emerged as he edited a humor column in the school's newspaper. He transferred to University of Colorado, where he edited Flatiron, the school's humor publication, and he graduated in 1954 with a degree in civil engineering.

Byrne began his career in 1954 as a Junior Civil Engineer for the City and County of San Francisco, Department of Engineering, Bureau of Public Works, Division of Highways.

Writing career

In 1955, a year later, he found a way to combine his engineering and writing talents by joining Western Construction magazine as a reporter for the heavy construction industry. In 1961, he was named editor of the magazine, a position he held for over ten years.

Byrne became a full-time writer in 1977, after the publication of his third book. He authored seven novels, five collections of humorous quotations, seven books on billiards, two anthologies, and an exposé of frauds in the literary world. One of his novels, Thrill, was made into NBC’s Monday Night Movie, which aired for the first time on May 20, 1996. Four of his novels were selections of Reader's Digest Condensed Books and published in over a dozen languages.

Byrne's unusual mix of talents as a writer, engineer and billiard player formed the right skill set to create what would become one of the definitive instructional works on cue sports. Byrne’s Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, published in 1978 and expanded in 1998, has sold over 500,000 copies. It is one of the very few such works that includes diagrams that are mathematically and physically accurate, with lines plotting the path of the center of the balls; the lines, therefore, do not touch the cushions of the table. Byrne coined the pool jargon term "squirt" in this book, defining the deflection effect that sends the cue ball toward the right when struck with left sidespin, and vice versa.

Byrne's books, hundreds of instructional magazine articles, and seven instructional videos (shot on sound stages in Burbank and Hollywood, California), established him as the pre-eminent teacher and commentator in the world of pool and billiards. He was a columnist and Contributing Editor for Billiard Digest magazine from its first issue in 1978, and a columnist for Dubuque's Telegraph Herald beginning in 2000. His most recent publication is Behold My Shorts, the collection of a decade of his monthly newspaper columns.

In 1994, on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, he received the Industry Service Award from the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America, an honor previously bestowed on Willie Mosconi, Paul Newman, and Jackie Gleason. In 1998, the readers of Billiards Digest named Byrne "Best Billiards Writer". His contributions to billiards and pool were recognized with induction into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. The honor, perhaps the greatest in the field, was bestowed for Meritorious Service on July 21, 2001, at the Las Vegas Hilton, at a banquet closing the annual International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo. He was inducted with many-time World Three-cushion Billiards Champion Raymond Ceulemans of Belgium.

As of May 2011, he had nearly finished a new collection of humorous quotations.

Playing career

Byrne's first success as a pool hustler came at the age of 12 when he beat the gas-meter reader out of 85¢, playing 8-ball on his family's basement pool table.

As a player, he had success at U.S. national-class tournaments in multiple disciplines:

Champion, National Senior Billiard Tournament, 1999
Champion, National Amateur Athletic Club Billiards Tournament, 1999
Third place, National Professional Three-Cushion Championship, 1977
Fourth place, National Professional Three-Cushion Championship, 1968

Personal life

On May 12, 1958, Byrne married Josefa Heifetz, concert pianist and daughter of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz. Byrne and Heifetz were divorced in 1976.

He died on December 6, 2016.

Works

Pool and billiards books

McGoorty, The Story of a Billiard Bum, 1972, Lyle Stuart (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8184-0056-8); republished 1984, as McGoorty, A Billiard Hustler's Life, Citadel Press, (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8065-0925-9); republished again 2004, as McGoorty, A Pool Room Hustler, Broadway Books (paperback, ISBN 978-0-7679-1631-8)
Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, 1978, Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-15-614972-3), 1987 (paperback, ISBN 978-0-15-614972-3)
Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards, 1982, Harcourt Brace/Harvest (paperback, ISBN 978-0-15-614973-0); 1983, Mariner (paperback, ISBN 978-0-15-115224-7); 1984, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Press (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-15-115224-7)
Byrne's Advanced Technique in Pool and Billiards, 1990, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Press (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-15-614971-6), Harcourt Brace (paperback, ISBN 978-0-15-614971-6)
Byrne's Book of Great Pool Stories, 1995, Harcourt Brace (ISBN 978-0-15-600223-3)
Byrne's Wonderful World of Pool and Billiards, 1996, Harcourt Brace (ISBN 978-0-15-600222-6)
Byrne's New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, 1998, Harcourt Brace (ISBN 978-0-15-600554-8)
Byrne's Complete Book of Pool Shots: 350 Moves Every Player Should Know, 2003, Harcourt/Harvest Books (ISBN 978-0-15-602721-2)

Instructional videos

Byrne's Standard Video of Pool, Volume I, 1987, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Standard Video of Pool, Volume II, 1988, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Standard Video of Trick Shots, Volume III, 1993, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Standard Video of More Trick Shots, Volume IV, 1993, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Power Pool Workout, Volume V, 1996, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Rack 'Em Up!, 1996, Premiere Home Video
Byrne's Gamebreakers, 2002, Accu-Stats Video Productions

Billiard tournament commentary videos

The Best of Three Cushion Billiards, Volume I, 1995, Accu-Stats Video Productions
The Best of Three Cushion Billiards, Volume II, 1997, Accu-Stats Video Productions

Novels

Memories of a Non-Jewish Childhood, 1970, Lyle Stuart (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-8184-0112-1); 1972, New American Library (paperback, ISBN 978-0-8184-0112-1) Staged as a musical by Dubuque's Grand Opera House in 2005.
Once a Catholic, 1981m New American Library (paperback, ISBN 978-0-523-41165-1)
The Tunnel, 1977, Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich (ISBN 978-0-15-191385-5). Selected for inclusion in a volume of Reader's Digest Condensed Books in 1977
The Dam, 1981, Atheneum (ISBN 978-0-425-05385-0). Part of Reader's Digest Condensed Books #136, 1981, vol. 3
Always a Catholic, 1981, Pinnacle (ISBN 978-0-523-42035-6)
Skyscraper, 1984, Atheneum (ISBN 978-0-451-13557-5). Part of Reader's Digest Condensed Books #154, 1984, vol. 3
Mannequin, 1988, Atheneum (ISBN 978-0-7089-2308-5). Included under the title Death Train in Reader's Digest Condensed Books #180, 1988, vol. 5
Thrill, 1995, Carrol & Graf (ISBN 978-0-7867-0199-5)

Collections of quotations

The 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1983, Fawcett (ISBN 978-0-449-20375-0)
The Other 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1985, Fawcett (ISBN 978-0-449-20762-8)
The Third and Possibly the Best, 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1986, Ballantine Books (ISBN 978-0-449-21337-7)
The 1911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1988, Fawcett/Columbine (ISBN 978-0-449-90285-1). Collection of the first three volumes.
The Fourth and by Far the Most Recent 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1990, Fawcett (ISBN 978-0-449-21975-1)
The Fifth and Far Finer than the First Four 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1994, Crest (ISBN 978-0-449-22312-3)
The 2548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, 1996, Budget Book Service (ISBN 978-0-88365-960-1); 2001, Galahad (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-88365-960-1); 2002, Fireside (paperback, ISBN 978-0-7432-3579-2); 2006, Simon & Schuster (hardcover, ISBN 978-1-4165-4035-9). Collection of the first four volumes.

Other books

Writing Rackets, 1969, Lyle Stuart (ISBN 978-0-8184-0095-7)
Cat Scan: All the Best from the Literature of Cats, 1983, Scribner (ISBN 978-0-689-11390-1)
Every Day is Father's Day, 1990, Crest (ISBN 978-0-449-21822-8)
Behold My Shorts, 2009, Telegraph Herald (ISBN 978-0-9819806-2-1)

As editor

Heifetz-Byrne, Josefa. Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, Gathered from Many and Diverse Authoritative Sources, 1974, University Press (ISBN 978-0-586-20600-3)
Kruse, Len. My Old Dubuque: Collected Writings on Dubuque Area History, 2000, Loras College Center for Dubuque History (ISBN 978-0-936875-07-1)

Notes

^ "Robert Leo Byrne". Legacy. 8 December 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
^ The Byrne Family History, self-published, Linda Byrne Brown, 2001
As described by Byrne in an interview with Shelley Till on the local public-access television program On the Edge with Shelley Till.
Shamos, Mike (June 2000). "Happy Birthday, Bob: A Thank-You to Robert Byrne for His Contributions to Billiard Literature". Billiards Digest. Vol. 22, no. 7. Chicago: Luby Publishing. ISSN 0164-761X.
^ Shamos, Mike (May 2010). "The Byrne Legacy: A Review of Robert Byrne's Gifts to Billiards on His 80th Year". Billiards Digest. Vol. 32, no. 6. Chicago: Luby Publishing. ISSN 0164-761X.
^ "Byrne, Robert". Encyclopedia Dubuque.
"Behold My Shorts Debuts". Telegraph Herald. Archived from the original on 2012-09-18.
Byrne, Robert (April 11, 2011). "A Personal Question: How Would You Describe Yourself?". Telegraph Herald.
Zentz, Renny (May 8, 1994). "Byrne takes not-so-novel approach to billiard success". Telegraph Herald.
"Milestones, May 12, 1958". Time. May 12, 1958. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009.

References

"Online interview published April, 2010". Untold Stories: Billiards History. 2010-04-15.
Garchik, Leah (February 6, 1983). "Creating a Bowl of Perfect Cherries". San Francisco Chronicle.
Zentz, Renny (May 8, 1994). "Byrne takes not-so-novel approach to billiard success". Telegraph Herald.
Zimmerman, Joy (October 7, 1988). "A Master Quipster". Pacific Sun.
Jowers, Andrew (April 28, 1993). "Author Byrne: Engineering, humor and billiards". Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Rasmussen, Eric (January 1996). "Writing the Great American (Civil Engineering) Novel". American Society of Civil Engineers News.

External links

Robert Byrne's official website, Byrne's Books & Billiards
Billiards Digest magazine website, with Byrne columns

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