ABOUT JOHN
Novelist and Oklahoma native Ralph Ellison said, “You have to leave home to find home”, an apt description of the journey of John Dwyer, author and general editor of The Oklahomans. The Dwyer family roots were firmly transplanted from Ireland to Oklahoma by John’s greatgrandfather and grandfather, the latter who settled in Oklahoma City in 1909, just two years after Oklahoma achieved statehood. Although born in Dallas, TX, John was relocated to Oklahoma when his widowed mother returned to her home when he was two years old.
It would be on Oklahoma soil that his mother instilled in him his love for history, and coupled with his unusually creative imagination, it soon became apparent that John not only liked to hear great stories of legend and history, but to make up his own as well. It would be out of a sense of divine purpose that he would use that creativity in response to a higher calling in the years to come.
John began a career in journalism during his high school days when he served in a variety of roles, including news and sports reporter, for the Duncan Banner, a daily newspaper in his small Oklahoma hometown. He was the youngest sports editor in the newspaper's history by the time he attended the University of Oklahoma on a journalism scholarship. He graduated in 1978 with a bachelor of arts and sciences degree in journalism.
Dwyer further developed his journalistic skills in radio as a play‐by‐play football and basketball announcer for several radio stations. He won the coveted position of sports director for the University of Oklahoma's 100,000 watt KGOU‐FM radio station. For seven years, he provided live, on‐air reports to America's largest radio networks of University of Oklahoma college football games.
Except for a year in England during 6th grade, John lived in the Sooner State for 28 years before returning to Dallas in 1986 to attend Dallas Theological Seminary where he earned his Master of Biblical Studies. While there, Dwyer worked part time on the sports staff of The Dallas Times Herald, which at the time owned one of the five largest circulations of any daily newspaper in Texas. It was in Texas that he also met and married his wife Grace in 1988 and settled down to start his family.
In the spring of 1992, Dwyer and his wife founded the Dallas‐Fort Worth Heritage newspaper, which would grow to a circulation of 50,000 per month at the time of its sale, after nearly a decade, to new owners. The Heritage pioneered innovative features such as full color photography and graphics, an expansive web site, a cluster of informative daily radio programs, and an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an
orthodox Christian worldview.
From 2002-2006, John served as History Chair of the Coram Deo Academy, a college preparatory academy with multiple campuses around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He taught a variety of American and European History, Western Civilization, World History, and Bible courses.
In 2006, at the urging of his family and the Oklahoma Historical Society, John returned to Oklahoma to tackle the colossal task of writing The Oklahomans, which was endorsed as an official project of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission. Volume 1 (Ancient‐Statehood) took John ten years to complete Released in 2016, it won the national Will Rogers Medallion Award literary contest for non-fiction. Charles Williams, Executive Director of the Fort Worth-based competition, declared The Oklahomans as “One of the best books we’ve ever seen in any category of our competition. It won in the most competitive category of this year’s contest.” Volume 2 (Statehood‐Present) releases in November 2020.
John’s other books include the non‐fiction historical narrative The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War (Red River Press), now in its fourth edition; the historical novels Stonewall and Robert E. Lee (Broadman & Holman Publishers), and the novel When the Bluebonnets Come (Bluebonnet Press). Also, the historical novel Shortgrass (Tiree Press), which won last year’s Will Rogers Medallion Award for Inspirational Fiction, and its sequel, the new World War II epic Mustang (Tiree Press).
Former Dallas Morning News Senior Editor William Murchison wrote of Dwyer: "How do I know there's a God? Because, for one thing, he keeps raising up eloquent, decisive champions of the faith: the likes of John Dwyer. A born communicator, John brings Christian conviction and learning, and with it a gentle humility, to literary tasks great and small.”
Dr. Bob Blackburn, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, called Dwyer’s book The Oklahomans, “The best book on Oklahoma History ever,” and said, “The difference between John Dwyer and other historical authors is that he doesn’t just tell what happened, he shows why people did what they did.”
Retired UCLA history instructor Roger D. McGrath, called Dwyer’s The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War, “The best textbook for the high school, preparatory academy or junior college I've ever read.”
John and his wife Grace have been married over thirty years. They have one daughter and one grandson, and live in Oklahoma. They are active members of their church, and serve in a variety of teaching, mission, and other ministry roles.