Thomas R. Williams

What's your dream?If you could be anything, what would you be? Are you afraid to share it? Worried someone will laugh and make fun of you? You are not alone."Your son will be the leader of a gang and dead by the time he's sixteen. You might as well give up on him." These are the words my mother heard at my 6th grade parent-teacher conference.At the age of twelve, my potential had already been limited. Like so many other young people in this world, I was faced with a decision. My choice was to either surrender to the opinions and expectations of others or I could tap into my passions and follow my dreams.This book is my story on how I went from a little boy with no hope, to a determined young man receiving a full athletic scholarship.I want to remind you . . . you have Permission to Dream. Thomas R. Williams

Founded in 1911, the AAVSO boasts over 1200 members and observers and is the world's largest non-profit organization dedicated to variable star observation. This timely book marks the AAVSO's centennial year, presenting an authoritative and accurate history of this important association. Writing in an engaging and accessible style, the authors move chronologically through five eras of the AAVSO, discussing the evolution of its structure and purpose. Throughout the text, the main focus is on the thousands of individuals whose contributions have made the AAVSO's progress possible. Describing a century of interaction between amateur and professional astronomers, the authors celebrate the collaborative relationships that have existed over the years. As the definitive history of the first hundred years of the AAVSO, this text has broad appeal and will be of interest to amateur and professional astronomers, as well as historians and sociologists of science in general.