People like John Grogan

John Joseph Grogan ( GROH-gən; born March 20, 1957) is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. His memoir Marley & Me (2005) was a best selling book about his family's dog Marley.

Grogan was born to a Catholic family of Irish descent in Detroit, Michigan on March 20, 1957, the youngest of four siblings.

His father, Richard, was an engineer for General Motors, while his mother, Ruth Marie, was a stay-at-home mom. Not long after he was born, the family moved to Harbor Hills, in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan. The neighborhood served as the setting for much of his memoir, The Longest Trip Home.

Grogan notes that his mother's passion and gift for storytelling "wore off" on him. By eighth grade (1970–71) at the Our Lady of Refuge, he was writing humorous stories about the nuns. He transferred from the Brother Rice Catholic High to a public high school, West Bloomfield High School (class of 1975), as a sophomore. He wrote for his school newspaper in high school and started an underground tabloid.