St. Joseph Notre Dame High School
Children need a friend as well as a role model to help them grow up and meet the challenges of everyday life.
Dori Maynard, author of "Letters To My Children," is living proof that a healthy home can create a well-rounded individual.
Dori, 37, believes her father, Robert Maynard, was "a positive role model as well as one of my closest friends." Maynard, the first African-American owner of a major metropolitan newspaper, died in 1993 of prostate cancer.
"Letters To My Children" is comprised of essays written by Dori on what her father meant to her as well as columns written by her father. The columns were originally published in the Oakland Tribune, the paper that Maynard owned.
Miki Turner, former employee of the late Maynard, said, "The book was a touching tribute, especially Dori's essays because they gave me a better insight into him. The message was never believe in the word `can't.'"
Dori hopes the book will be inspirational and that the columns will teach lessons. She hopes readers will absorb her father's lessons the same way the Maynard progeny absorbed them during Maynard's life.
She said she was motivated to co-write this book because it was an opportunity for her to work with her father. When her father passed away her motives changed.
"I felt like I owed it (the completion of the book) to him," Dori said.
With the help of Janis Snyder, Robert Maynard's assistant, Dori plans to finish two other books and conclude the Maynard Memorial Project. She hopes to accomplish this task within the next 10 years.
She had a unique relationship with her father that some only dream of having with any relative.
She hopes people will remember him as a man who "believed anything was possible." His legacy was of one communication.
"He believed that people should listen to others even if one does not agree with them," she said.