Freeport Authors: G

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Beatrice Garrett was born in Freeport but graduated from Germantown High School in Philadelphia.  When she was in the Women’s Army Corps, she wrote a column, WAC-YAK.  Her book, Welfare on Skid Row, was taken from her experiences owning a Soul Food café in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.  

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[Biography found on Amazon.com]

Linda Bessellieu, a self-published Indie author, along with co-authors Tawana Bessellieu and Jaliyah Bessellieu-Webb, presents the fiction and nonfiction children's standalone picture book series "My Protest" for Early Readers. Our stories reflect our connection to Jaliyah's experiences, written from an authentic child's perspective. We started authoring Jaliyah's stories at age 4; now, eight-year-old Jaliyah still brings a fresh and relatable voice to our stories, sparking curiosity and engagement.

My Protest

• 2020 won a Distinguished Favorite Independent Press Award and rated 5 Stars from Readers' Favorite.

My Protest: If I Could Peek Into Heaven …. To See What My Daddy Is Doing!

• 2024 NYC BBA Distinguished Favorite: Children’s Death & Dying and rated 5 Stars from Readers' Favorite &

OnlineBookClub

My Protest: Please Don’t Erase Our History!

• 2024 NYC BBA Distinguished Favorite: Children Nonfiction and rated 5 Stars from Readers' Favorite & OnlineBookClub

• An admirable example of grassroots advocacy. – Kirkus Review

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Dr. Louis Genevie, Ph.D.. is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  He was a research scientist are the Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University School of Public Health.  He grew up in Philadelphia and was a graduate of the University of Maryland and his Ph.D is from CUNY.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Sean Gervasi was an economist, political analyst, and activist. Living in  Freeport from 1983 until his death, he was educated at Oxford, in Geneva and Cornell University.  He taught at Cambridge, Oxford, the London School of Economics, the University of Paris, and Brooklyn College. He helped start the British anti-Vietnam war movement. He worked at the United Nations in the Committee Against Apartheid and the Commission on Namibia. He worked in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia, and with the liberation movements of Angola and South Africa. Forced out of the UN during the Reagan era, he began to investigate the destabilization of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. He died in 1996 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, while working to expose U.S.-German-NATO plans to recolonize the region.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

A former resident of Freeport , Marcia Gillespie is presently Professor of Diversity in Residence for the JBA (Johnetta B. Cole) Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, South Carolina.  She was editor in chief of Essence from 1971 to 1980 and editor in chief of Ms. from 1993-2001.  Time magazine, in 1979, named her as “One of the Fifty Faces for America’s Future.”  She was one of the women investors, including Gloria Steinem, who purchased Ms. in 1998.  She is in high demand as a speaker in a variety of venues.  She is on the board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and on the Board of Directors for the New Federal Theater in New York City.  She was born in Rockville Centre and is considered a native of Baldwin.  Her bachelor’s degree is in American studies from Lake Forest College in Illinois who conferred on her a Doctor of Letters.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Stephan Glantz a collector, educator and writer was the son of Earl and Helen Glantz who operated Glantz Travel Agency in Freeport.  His major collections dealt with the arts of Black Africa.  This interest began in 1965 when he went to Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo.  While traveling throughout Africa and running the travel agencies, he also attended Hofstra University where he earned a master’s degree in humanities.

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Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

George W. Goeller, the Editor Emeritus of the Long Island Graphic and the Roosevelt Pres, was born in Manhattan and educated at Commercial High School.  At the age of 17, he became a copy boy for the Brooklyn Daily Times where he became the Long Island editor.  He was a reporter and editor of the Brooklyn Eagle.  He moved to Freeport in 1919 and started the Freeport Leader in 1935.  He also was the editor of the Long Island Graphic.  Goeller was a member of the First Baptist Church and the Salvation Army.  “He was a great newspaperman and loved by all” a close friend said.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

William E. Goeller, the Editor Emeritus of the Long Island Graphic and the Roosevelt Pres, was born in Manhattan and educated at Commercial High School.  At the age of 17, he became a copy boy for the Brooklyn Daily Times where he became the Long Island editor.  He was a reporter and editor of the Brooklyn Eagle.  He moved to Freeport in 1919 and started the Freeport Leader in 1935.  He also was the editor of the Long Island Graphic.  Goeller was a member of the First Baptist Church and the Salvation Army.  “He was a great newspaperman and loved by all” a close friend said.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Born in Brooklyn, Donald A. Goldsmith is a 1961 graduate of Freeport High School and graduated with a B.A. from Bowdoin College in 1965.  At Columbia University School of Law he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and earned his LL.B. in 1968.  He is a partner in the law firm of Holland & Knight where he specializes in tax controversy and litigation.  He has served as counsel for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Wallace Foundation (Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds) and the American Foundation for the Blind.  Additionally, he is a trustee of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, a member of the Professional Adviser’s Councils of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Lincoln Center.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

George Gollin grew up in Freeport and graduated in 1971 from Freeport High School.  He attended Harvard University as an undergraduate, receiving an AB in physics in 1975, and then Princeton University earning a PhD in 1981.  After a period as a Robert R. McCormick postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago he returned to Princeton as an assistant professor in 1983.  Gollin moved to the University of Illinois as an associate professor in 1989, becoming a full professor in 1996.  His research in experimental particle physics has included collaboration on experiments at Fermilab, the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, and CERN.  He is presently involved in international efforts to design the International Linear Collider.  His interest in international higher education focuses on the oversight and regulation of unaccredited schools.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Albert Graham’s parents were John and Anna Gangemi and he spent most of his youth in Freeport.  He joined the army at 17 and in later years went to Alaska where he developed a love for the sea and commercial fishing.

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[Biography found on Amazon.com]

George Cameron Grant

Grandson of Lanarkshire-born Olympian George Guthrie Cameron, George is the internationally produced, Award-Winning author of 14 full length plays, over 40 one acts, countless monologues and screenplays. His latest, the 3 EGG CREAMS - A RHAPSODY IN THE RAIN, is a 75 minute, 1 actor, 7 character show inspired by, and featuring the timeless music of the Legendary LOU CHRISTIE, and has just been adapted into a full-length screenplay.

John Patrick Green is the is an author and illustrator of comics and graphic novels.  He graduated Freeport High School in 1993.

[Biography from publisher]

John Patrick Green is a human with the human job of making books about animals with human jobs, notably the smash-hit graphic novel series InvestiGators. John is definitely a multiple New York Times-bestselling human author and not just a bunch of animals in a trench coat pretending to have a human job. With over a million copies of InvestiGators in print, John is a successful human being with only two hands and a normal amount of fur. He lives in a Brooklyn apartment that doesn't allow animals other than the ones living in his head.

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[Biography found in The Freeport Baldwin Leader, 5 October 2017]

...Freeport author, ML Green, is excited to finally get to share her book with Long Island. Originally from Rainbow City, Panama, a community near the Panama Canal, Green immigrated to the United States with her parents as a teenager. She graduated from Hampton University in Hampton, Va. with a degree in sociology and a minor in psychology. She has lived in Freeport for 30 years. 

Green is proud of her Central American roots and though Freeport is home, she still reminisces affectionately of her family and friends in Panama. Though it is unknown if Green is one of the first Latina-American writers to come out of Freeport, she hopes through her new book she will be able to bring families together, especially parents and their children for story time at bedtime. 

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Martha Greene is the daughter of Mayor Bob and Martha Sweeney and grew up in Meister Beach.  She is a 1964 graduate of Freeport High School, graduated from Hofstra University with a major in engineering and is a mathematics teacher at Baldwin High School.

Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith

[Biography by author]

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Senior Associate Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith also is a Fellow with the Caribbean Policy Consortium and with Global Americans. He originated the concept of Geonarcotics in the early 1990s as a way to study the complex relationship involving drugs, geography, power, and politics, outlining it first in International Journal, Canada's leading international affairs scholarly publication.

Professor Griffith has published widely on Caribbean national security, drugs, and crime issues, including the books Strategy and Security in the Caribbean (1991), The Quest for Security in the Caribbean (1993), Drugs and Security in the Caribbean (1997), Democracy and Human Rights in the Caribbean (1997), The Political Economy of Drugs in the Caribbean (2000), Caribbean Security in the Age of Terror (2004), and Challenged Sovereignty: The Impact of Drugs, Crime, Terrorism, and Cyber Threats in the Caribbean (2024). His next book—Oil and Climate Change in the Guyana-Suriname Petro-Power Basin—will be published by Routledge this coming June. His first novel, Sylvie’s Love and Loss also will be published later this year by Wordeee. 

Dr. Griffith also has published several dozen articles in reputable scholarly journals and his research also has appeared in several encyclopedias. He has been quoted in dozens of Caribbean and international newspapers and has been the guest of several podcasts. He is the recipient of the Dr. William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education, named in honor of former US Defense Secretary and conferred by the National Defense University (2015). As well, he was awarded the Cacique Crown of Honor (Guyana’s third highest national honor) (2017) for Excellence in International Scholarship and Transformational Education Leadership, on the occasion of the 51st Anniversary of Guyana’s Independence.

Professor Griffith has served in several academic leadership roles, including as Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, President of Fort Valley State University in Georgia, Provost of Radford University in Virginia and of York College/CUNY, and as a Dean at Florida International University. Also, he has testified before the U.S. Congress and served as a consultant to several U.S and international organizations. A past president of the Caribbean Studies Association, Dr. Griffith also has been a visiting scholar at military institutes in Canada, Germany, and the United States. A member of the Vestry (governing board) of the Historic St. George’s Episcopal Church and the Freeport/Merrick Rotary Club, he and Francille, his partner of four decades, have two adult children and one granddaughter.

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Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Lori Grinker was born in Freeport and never came back.  Until she went to the Parsons School of Design, she lived in Woodmere.  While there, in 1981, she did a photo-essay of a boxer which was the cover story for Inside Sports.  She also met Mike Tyson and documented his life over a ten year span.  She photographed the destruction of the World Trade Center.  She has photographed in over 50 countries.  Her work has been featured in Life, The New York Times Magazine, the Village Voice, People and Newsweek.

Biography by Cynthia J Krieg, Village Historian

Al Grover grew up on the Freeport waterfront and graduated from Freeport High School in 1945.  He owns Grover’s High and Dry Marina at 500 South Main Street since 1950 and other properties throughout Freeport.  The family built fishing skiffs from the 1970s until about 1990.   Al Grover and his sons took one of their 26-footers from Nova Scotia to Portugal in the first outboard-powered crossing of the Atlantic in 1985.

[Biography found on Amazon.com]

Athlete, author, cognitive therapist and coach, Joanna Grover's driven by knowledge and to be of service. This drive led her to become the first person in the US to be trained in Functional Imagery Training. She has taken this proven way to break through mental walls and translated it from psychological journals to the world of high performance and well-being with co-author Dr Jonathan Rhodes. "The Choice Point" has been translated into six languages and was nominated for Malcolm Gladwell's Next Big Idea Club.

Joanna lives in Miami Beach & Sag Harbor. She has a partner and two grown sons.

[Biography found on Amazon.com]

Sean Grover is a psychotherapist and best-selling author with over 25 years of experience. Sean has appeared on the Today Show and over 200 podcasts and radio shows and leads one of the largest group therapy practices in the United States. Sean’s parenting book, "When Kids Call The Shots," was named Best New Nonfiction by Publishers Weekly and is translated into Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Estonian. Sean lives in Manhattan with his wife, two daughters, and a bossy terrier named Oliver.

[Biography by Becky Soumakis]

Wesly Guiteau is an accomplished businessman with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Business and a Minor in Finance from Long Island University. His many achievements include working as an Executive Associate for Risk Strategies Company, a Senior Vice President and Underwriting Manager for Willis Bermuda Ltd., and Assistant Vice President for Marsh Global Broking, in addition to holding other prominent positions within these companies. 

Mr. Guiteau's accomplishments include helping to launch a new, revamped health care underwriting platform for XL Catlin Bermuda, sponsoring a seminar for more than 22 underwriters on the state of the Bermuda Market and the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to the insurance industry, and leading a market-wide initiative with other brokers to create more than one Professional Liability Forms. He is also fluent in French and Spanish. 

In addition to his books, Guiteau has published several articles in review sources and magazines, not to mention being the subject of an AM Best TV Interview. 

In his free time, Mr. Guiteau reads, writes, and enjoys athletic pastimes including golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, and running.