Leo Buscaglia

Felice Leonardo "Leo" Buscaglia Ph.D. (1924-1998), also known as "Dr Love," was an author and motivational speaker, and a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California (USC).

Buscaglia was born in Los Angeles, CA on March 31, 1924 into a family of Italian immigrants. He spent his early childhood in Aosta, Italy, before going back to the United States for education. He was a graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles. After Navy service in World War II, Buscaglia entered the University of Southern California, earned a PhD (1963) and later joined the faculty. Upon retirement, Buscaglia was named Professor at Large, one of only two such designations on campus at that time.

He gained fame on the USC campus through his non-credit course titled "Love 1A," which became the basis for his first book, titled simply LOVE. His dynamic speaking style was discovered by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and his televised lectures earned great popularity in the 1980s. At one point his talks, always shown during fund raising periods, were the top earners of all PBS programs. This national exposure, coupled with the heartfelt storytelling style of his books, helped make all of his titles national Best Sellers; five were once on the New York Times Best Sellers List simultaneously.

In the Love 1A course "we never attempted nor in three years were able to define love.  We felt as we grew in love, that to define it would be to delimit it and love seemed infinite.  As one student stated, ‘I find love much like a mirror. When I love another, he becomes my mirror and I become his, and reflecting in each other's love we see infinity!’ “

“I don't teach love, I simply facilitate growth in love.  Love is a learned phenomenon and many of us are not happy with the way we've learned it.”