By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Esteemed publisher Henry Quinlan made an appearance at The Center at the Heights (CATH), as seniors gathered to hear Quinlan discuss his favorite stories from his fifty year career in publishing.
Quinlan is the owner and publisher of Omni Publishing Company, which he founded back in 1986. According to his website, some of the most notable books that he has published include: “My Life in Space”by Wally Schirra; “Rebound”by KC Jones, coach of the Boston Celtics; “My Dad the Babe”by his daughter Dorothy Ruth Pirrone; “The Cops are Robbers”by Kevin Stevens, which was featured on 60 Minutes and made into an HBO movie.”
His current mission is to help senior citizens self-publish their life’s stories as a memoir or autobiography, stating that everyone has a story to tell. Throughout this specific presentation, Quinlan shared an array of fascinating and comedic stories of his rather famous encounters with movie stars, cops and robbers, politicians, astronauts, famous journalists, and more.
Before getting into each of the stories, he started out by telling seniors the two main things that he learned during his time as a publisher. “What I have learned,” Quinlan stated, “is that life is a series of losses and changes. And as we go through life, either in college or in high school or in the army or a job, we inevitably change. So tracking all these changes in life, we need to have the ability to move on from them. It is required that you have to put the past behind you. The other thing that I learned is that you cannot control much in your life. And a lot of the stories that I am going to tell you today, to me, were serendipity. They happened in strange ways.”
As Quinlan went on to share his stories, all of the seniors were in complete awe, absolutely amazed at who he met and the comedic times he had with each person. One of the incredible stories he shared with everyone was the time that President George H. Bush asked him to organize the publishing of the children’s book, “Make Way for Ducklings” in Russia. This had happened in 1991, and along with the book, the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues were placed in Moscow as well. These exact statues can also be seen in the Public Garden in Boston. The book then went on to be published in both Russian and English versions for children to read.
He went on to also share one of his personal favorite stories about Mitzi Gaynor. He explained that when they first met, she jokingly had told him that if she were to ever write a book for him to publish, she would never be able to work again because she would have to be honest within her writing. He further emphasized just how lovely she was, “a truly delightful woman.”
