Tom Oestreicher

    Tom was born and raised in Aurora, Illinois.  Tom and his wife Marilyn have been married for 37 years and have two children and four grandchildren.  Tom taught high school in Sycamore during the 1970's where he also coached track and cross-county.  He currently teaches at Genoa-Kingston high school.   Eventually Tom and Marilyn bought a restaurant in Sycamore and owned it for 15 years until the spring of 2005.  Tom was involved with Pumpkin Festival for many years giving free ice cream sundaes to the 1st place winners of the Sycamore Lions Club Decorated Pumpkin contest.  Tom is currently a director of the Sycamore Historical Museum.

     Tom is an author, historian, lecturer, and writing coach, and a recognized authority on the American Civil war.  In July he presented a a series of 10 lectures on the Civil War for the state of Hawaii.  He began writing 10 years ago and his first book "Present and Accounted For" reached #1 Best Seller Status at Barnes and Noble in June, 2005 and a featured book at the Book Expo America in New York city in June of 2005.  In October of 2006 "Present and Accounted For" was selected to be made into a made-for-TV movie.  In December of that year the sequel " With Full Honors was published.  Tom has a third book "Plantation" that is due out in by summer of 2008.

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