Reginald Val Davin is a 70-year-old native of New York City. He attended Herbert H. Lehman University in New York and received a bachelor's degree in English. He also graduated from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. A school that specializes in helping students develop their creative writing skills. Mr. Davin is President and Founder of Gumbo & Associates, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles California with a "Base Prevention Program" to keep young men and women out of prison by helping them to acquire critical thinking skills with the game of chess. This technique is designed to teach the participants how to make "good decisions" by applying the principals of a chess game to become successful in whatever type of career they choose to pursue. Mr. Davin believes this type of curriculum is greatly needed in the urban community to provide alternatives for young people who desperately need to change their lives. This book was written with the idea of using the profits from book sales to be used by Gumbo & Associates, so that the organization will continue to remain an important "tool" in helping to reduce "recidivism" in the urban community.
