Author, Novelist. A prolific writer, he is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Born Thomas Leo Clancy Jr., his father worked for the US Postal Service and his mother worked in a department store. After graduating from high school in 1965, he attended Loyola University Maryland and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English Literature. He then worked in the insurance industry and began writing in his spare time, and his first novel, "The Hunt for Red October", debuted in 1984. This was followed by "Red Storm Rising" (1986 - co-authored by Larry Bond), "Patriot Games" (1987), "Clear and Present Danger" (1989), "The Sum of All Fears" (1991), and "Without Remorse" 1993), all of which were later adapted into successful films. His novels focus on the hero, most notably 'Jack Ryan' and 'John Clark', both Irish Catholics like himself, and who are highly skilled, disciplined, honest, thoroughly professional, and only lose their cool when incompetent politicians or bureaucrats get in their way. His works also inspired games such as the "Ghost Recon," "Rainbow Six," "The Division," and Splinter Cell" series.. In 1993, he joined a group of investors and bought the American League baseball team Baltimore Orioles from owner Eli Jacobs. With the release of "The Teeth of the Tiger" (2003), he introduces his character Jack Ryan's son and two nephews as main characters, and they continued in his last four novels, "Dead or Alive" (2010), "Locked On" (2011), "Threat Vector" (2012), and "Command Authority" (2013). He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1988 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1992. He was one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing in the 1990s. Seventeen of his novels have been bestsellers and more than 100 million copies of his books have been sold.