Bob Welch is an award-winning columnist, speaker and author whose 15 books are distinguished by heart, humor and hope. As head of Pebble in the Water Inspiration, Welch has keynoted conferences across America. "Forget the hyperbole," said Julie Zander, organizer of the Association of Personal Historians conference in Portland. "Our 261 participants scored Welch a 4.81 on a 5.0-scale."

A storyteller by nature, Welch mines much of his speaking fodder from his books and the nearly 2,000 columns he's written for The Register-Guard, Oregon's second-largest newspaper. He has twice won the National Society of Newspaper Columnists's highest award for writing. In addition, he has won dozens of other journalism awards, including the 2010 and 2011 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association's "Best Writing" awards. He's also the winner of the Seattle Times C.B. Blethen Award for Distinguished Feature Writing.

Three new Welch books will hit the shelves in late 2012: "Fifty-Two Little Lessons from It's a Wonderful Life" (Nashville: Thomas Nelson); "Resolve: From WWII Bataan, the Story of a Soldier, a Flag, and a Promise Kept." (New York: Penguin's Berkley Books); and "Cascade Summer: My Adventure on Oregon's Pacific Crest Trail." (Eugene: AO Creative).

A previous book about a heroic World War II nurse, "American Nightingale" (Atria Books, 2004), was featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.

Articles of Welch's have been published in more than a dozen books, including seven in the popular "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.

In addition, he has had articles published in such magazines a s"Los Angeles Times," "Reader's Digest," "Sports Illustrated" and "Runner's World."

In 2005, Welch founded the Beachside Writers Workshop in the Oregon coast town of Yachats. Since then, nearly 1,000 students have attended the workshops.

He and his wife, Sally, live in Eugene.