Life Story
By Jeannine Gage
Bob Herpe has seen and done a lot in his 95 years. He ran a rock ‘n’ roll radio station for years, got into films, became a business coach, raised two daughters, and now, he is a novelist.
“I’ve had a lot of time to do a lot of things,” Bob says.
Boasting a full head of hair and clear blue eyes, Bob published his first book in his late 80s, just published his second, and is already thinking up plot lines for a third. He began writing about 15 years ago when his wife became ill with Alzheimer’s disease and Bob was taking care of her.
“I was her caretaker, but I had always been so busy working,” he says. “I was going crazy needing something to do.”
Bob had written some material for advertisements, industry films, and his coaching business but had never taken on anything of great length or a work of fiction. He thought he would write about what his wife was going through with her illness. “I wanted to write from her point of view,” he says. “I started, but as she got worse, it just became too difficult for me.”
So, Bob decided to write for fun. He had always been a fan of crime novels, so that’s the genre he chose. The title character of his first book, Gravnick, is retired police chief Ernie Gravnick, who was influenced by the hardscrabble cops in Bob’s hometown of Chicago where the book is mostly set. The action surrounds two families – one Jewish and one Italian mafioso.
“I’ve had a lot of time to do a lot of things.”
Bob Herpe began writing in his 80s and recently published his second book at age 95.
”It is a love story, first and foremost, but also a twisted family saga of murder, disguise, trickery, and greed,” says the novel’s description on Amazon – where it boasts a bevy of five-star reviews.
Bob’s new novel, The Other Side of Crisis, is a follow-up to Gravnick and begins on an airplane on which Gravnick and his stepson are coming home after celebrating the young man’s bar mitzvah in Israel. The action starts immediately when tragedy strikes on the plane.
Bob says writing came fairly easily to him, but to help him along, he took a couple of writing courses at Seminole State College and joined a writers’ group there.
“It was all ages,” Bob says of the group. “We’d meet at each other’s homes to write and critique. I wrote a few short stories and got good feedback.”
Bob eventually developed a unique writing style – no outline, write the ending before the beginning, don’t cramp the characters.
“I write the first and last paragraphs, then cut the people loose,” Bob says. “Certain people are going to react certain ways to certain situations. I let them do that.”
“Every day, I try to do one thing I’ve never done before.”
Pictured above: Bob’s first novel, Gravnick. Pictured below right: His new follow-up, The Other Side of Crisis.
After his wife’s death in 2017, Bob got the first chapter of Gravnick written and went to a writer’s retreat in Arizona where he got good feedback and was encouraged to continue. He hasn’t slowed down since.
Bob, who is of German descent, says it is important for him that his main character is Jewish, like him. One of his new characters is Israeli and served in the country’s army becoming a hero and being held captive in Syria for two years.
“I don’t want the books to be overtly political,” Bob says. “I try to educate without being forceful.”
Despite his advanced age, Bob says he is as active as ever. Writing helps keep him young, he believes, and Bob and his partner, 92-year-old Sandy Silbert, have many interests.
“We devote ourselves to fun every day,” says Bob. “We eat out a lot and do whatever we can physically and mentally.”
And Bob lives by one rule that he says everyone should consider:
“Every day, I try to do one thing I’ve never done before,” he says. “And I’m lucky. I’m a guy who’s really never done anything I didn’t like.”
This story was originally published in print in Summer 2024.