Patrick J. Bird

Patrick J. Bird was born in 1935 and raised in New York City. He has written for popular magazines including Scientific American, Women's Health, Cooking Light, Your Family, and Golden Years. For thirteen years, he wrote a weekly health column for the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group and the St. Petersburg Times. And in 2012, he published a memoir: A Rough Road about contracting polio in 1940 at age four and his subsequent nineteen-month hospitalization at the New York State Reconstruction Home. A second book, Easter 1956: A Family Story, will be published in 2016.

Pat has a BS and MS from the University of Illinois where he was a member, and team captain, of the gymnastics team that won four consecutive Big Ten championships and the NCAA Championship, 1956. He also served as UI assistant coach and acting head coach and went on to coach at the University of Minnesota. There he completed his PhD (emphasis in Exercise Physiology).

After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Bird has taught and served in academic administration position at the University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, University of Virginia, and the University of Florida. He has over forty academic publications to his credit and retired Professor and Dean Emeritus from UF in 2005. Pat and his wife, Mary, live in Gainesville, Florida.