Callo, Joseph F. 1929-

views updated

Callo, Joseph F. 1929-

(Joseph Callo, Joseph Francis Callo)

PERSONAL: Born December 16, 1929, in New York, NY; son of Joseph Francis and Mary Ellen Callo; married Susan Catherine Jones, June 10, 1952 (divorced, November, 1978); married Sally Chin McElwreath (senior vice president of utility/energy company), March 17, 1979; children: (first marriage) Joseph Francis III, James D., Mary Ellen, Kathleen E., Patricia A.; (second marriage) Robert Joseph McElwreath (stepson). Education: Yale University, B.A., 1952.

ADDRESSES: Home— New York, NY. E-mail— jfc1952@aol.com.

CAREER: Marketing executive, writer, and educator. Joseph F. Callo Inc., New York, NY, account executive, 1952-58; Potts-Woodbury Inc., New York, NY, vice president and director, 1958-60; Callo & Carroll Inc., New York, NY, president, 1960-74; Callo Berger Albanese Inc., chairman of the board of directors and creative director, 1974-75; National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (NBC), and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), television producer, 1976-78; Albert Frank/FCB. Inc., New York, NY, executive vice president, 1978-81; Grey Advertising, senior vice president, 1981-83; Muir Cornelius Moore, Inc., senior vice president, 1983-84. Also St. John’s University, New York, NY, adjunct associate professor of communication arts, 1965-78; United States Navy, member of marketing review group, 1973-74; and National Maritime Historical Society, board of advisors. Military service: U.S. Navy; retired from Naval Reserve as Rear Admiral.

MEMBER: Society of Nautical Research (Great Britain), Surface Navy Association (founding president of greater New York chapter), The Naval Club (London, England), Yale Club of New York.

AWARDS, HONORS: George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award, for work as line producer on the NBC-TV prime-time special Tut: The Boy King; Telly Award for script for The Second Life of 20 West Ninth; Samuel Eliot Morison Award, Naval Order of the United States, for John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior; Author of the Year, Naval History magazine, 1998.

WRITINGS

(As Joseph Callo) Legacy of Leadership: Lessons from Admiral Lord Nelson, Hellgate Press (Central Point, OR), 1999.

Nelson Speaks: Admiral Lord Nelson in His Own Words, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2001.

Nelson in the Caribbean: The Hero Emerges, 1784-1787, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2003.

(With Alastair Wilson) Who’s Who in Naval History: From 1550 to the Present, Routledge (New York, NY), 2004.

(As Joseph Callo) John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2006.

Also author of the script for The Second Life of 20 West Ninth, PBS and the History Channel; contributor to periodicals, including Naval History, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, New York Post, Sea History, Yale Free Press, Kansas City Business Journal, and Canadian Yachting.

SIDELIGHTS: Joseph F. Callo served in the U.S. Navy and the Naval Reserve and has written several historical books about prominent naval leaders, including three books about Admiral Lord Nelson. In Nelson in the Caribbean: The Hero Emerges, 1784-1787, Callo analyzes three years in the life of the famous British admiral. The focus is unusual in that it reflects on Nelson’s time as a young Royal Navy captain in the Caribbean, during which he was beset more by administrative problems rather than wartime heroics. Carolyn S. Knapp, writing in the Historian, commented that the author “is convinced that the course of his subject’s life was determined by the Caribbean experiences.” Knapp added: “The result is an accessible and enjoyable work.”U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings contributor Richard Seamon wrote that the author “manages to show how the geopolitics of the time, the Royal Navy’s internal politics, and even Nelson’s colorful love life combined to mould the character of the man.”

John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior focuses on the first and perhaps still best-known American naval hero, whose sarcophagus rests in the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel. In his biography, Callo presents Jones as the epitome of naval officers as he recounts his youth, successes, and failures. The author also includes tactical and strategic commentary on sea battles. Writing in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, William M. Fowler, Jr., commented that the “biography challenges us once again to reflect on this officer and the cause for which he fought.” A Seacoast-NH.com contributor wrote: “While others have described Jones as egomaniacal, reckless or even possibly suffering from a bipolar personality disorder, Callo sees a driven, but admirable, even a visionary, figure.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Historian, winter, 2004, Carolyn S. Knapp, review of Nelson in the Caribbean: The Hero Emerges, 1784-1787, p. 864.

U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, January, 2003, Richard Seamon, review of Nelson in the Caribbean, p. 102; April, 2006, William M. Fowler, Jr., review of John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior, pp. 84-85.