Old Songs in a New Cafe

Robert James Waller was an American author best known for the hugely successful 1993 book The Bridges of Madison County. He was also a photographer and musician. Robert James Waller Jr. was born in Charles City, Iowa and raised in Rockford, Iowa. Waller earned his BA (62) and MA (64) degrees from the University of Northern Iowa (then known as Iowa Teachers College). He received his Ph.D. in Business from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington in 1968. Later that year he returned to UNI and began teaching management and economics, and in 1977 became a full-time professor. He became dean of the College of Business in 1980 and retired from that position in 1986. He announced in 2000 that he had donated "seven figures" to Indiana University. Several of his books were included in the New York Times bestseller list including 1992's The Bridges of Madison County which was a 1993 bestseller. Both that novel and his 1995 novel, Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, have been made into motion pictures. In 1997, his 35-year marriage to Georgia ended in divorce. An article in People Magazine, noted, "The parallels between Waller's life and art—Bridges heroine, farmer's wife Francesca, sacrifices her chance for happiness with a photographer who leaps around the world in order to stay home and protect her loved ones from a small-town scandal" are not lost on the residents. locals". Waller died on March 10, 2017 at his home in Fredericksburg, Texas. He was 77 years old and was battling multiple myeloma.