People with ADD/ADHD often end up with high-energy, fast-action, high-risk jobs. Bob Ossler is no exception.
In his life time Bob has been an EMT, a paramedic, a firefighter, and an air-sea rescue diver with the Chicago Fire Department.
Bob (Middle) at Meigs Field, Chicago ice dive 2003
In his early 20s in the military, Bob had a spiritual encounter that changed the direction of his life. Over the years, in addition to gaining further emergency services training, Bob sought out spiritual training. After seventeen years of part-time study and despite his learning difficulties, Bob was ordained as a pastor. He became a part-time chaplain for the Melrose Fire Department while continuing to work for the Chicago Fire Department.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he responded to the call for chaplains at Ground Zero in New York City. He shares many of his experiences of counseling families of victims, workers, and volunteers at Ground Zero in his book Triumph Over Terror.
As an adult, he was diagnosed with ADD which helped him understand why he had such trouble learning in school. Over the years he developed his own techniques for learning and remembering while studying in self-paced independent learnings settings. This type of learning became the key to his success.
Bob is now writing about his life and the lessons and strategies he used to compensate for his learning difficulties. He’s retired now, but he volunteers his time as chaplain of the Cape Coral Fire Department in Cape Coral, Florida. He still races to fires and accidents and other tragic situations, not to assist as an emergency service provider, but to serve as a chaplain. He offers comfort to people in distress and offers prayer when appropriate.
It has taken years, but Bob has found his calling.
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Read Triumph Over Terror, a multi-award-winning book about Chaplain Bob Ossler’s interactions with suffering people in New York City’s Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. His stories will touch your heart and fill you with compassion for those emergency services workers, search and rescue workers, recovery workers, construction crews, and volunteers who served there in impossible conditions. #NeverForget this time in US History. Read the message of hope in this book.
