John Grogan

John Joseph Grogan ( ; born March 20, 1957) is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. His memoir Marley & Me was a best-selling book about his family's dog, Marley.

Early life Grogan was born to a Catholic family of Irish descent in Detroit, Michigan on March 20, 1957, the youngest of four siblings.

His father, Richard,

Grogan notes that his mother's passion and gift for storytelling "wore off" on him. By eighth grade (1970–71) at the Our Lady of Refuge, to a public high school, West Bloomfield High School (class of 1975), as a sophomore. He wrote for his school newspaper in high school and started an underground tabloid.

He attended Central Michigan University, where he double majored in Journalism and English, and wrote for the school newspaper, CM-Life. he was named managing editor of Rodale's Organic Gardening magazine and moved to Pennsylvania. Three years later, in 2002, he joined The Philadelphia Inquirer as a columnist. The Inquirer published a volume of his best articles in 2007 called Bad Dogs Have More Fun.

His journalistic career of over 20 years has won him several state and national awards, including the National Press Club's Consumer Journalism Award.

In the spring of 2012, he joined Lehigh University as an adjunct professor in the department of journalism and communication. He teaches a writing course called Memoir and Me: First-Person Non-Fiction Narratives.

Marley & Me In 2003, when Grogan's dog, Marley, died at age thirteen, Grogan wrote a column in The Philadelphia Inquirer honoring him. Grogan received over 800 responses from his readers. The readers' astounding response and interest in Marley sparked Grogan's decision to write a book, due to the realization that he had "a bigger story to tell" and "owed it to Marley to tell the rest of the story."

The success of the book led to several spin-off children's books, including Bad Dog, Marley, A Very Marley Christmas, and Marley Goes to School.

Personal life Grogan met his future wife, Jenny Vogt, while working at the Herald-Palladium, where she was also a reporter on the staff. They married on September 2, 1989 at Our Lady of Refuge Church, Orchard Lake Village, Michigan.

Grogan lives in Coopersburg, rural eastern Pennsylvania, in a 1790 farm home After Marley's death, they had adopted another dog, Gracie; she died in early 2012 from a complication of Lyme disease. They later adopted Woodson (one of the dogs who portrayed Marley in the film version), who passed in 2020. Grogan continues to write full-time.