Rob Westerlund was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in Bettendorf, Iowa, where he developed a love of drama, film, music, and writing. He graduated from the University of Iowa where he had studied television and film. He moved to Hollywood where he spent his first years after college laboring in the bowels of the entertainment industry. He gave studio tours as an NBC page and worked on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. He acted as an extra in films like The Last Boy Scout, Hush, and Into the Sun. While working at the Walt Disney studios he tried his hand at scribing screenplays and teleplays.
Westerlund then earned his Master of Divinity at Bethel Seminary and ministered in several churches as director of drama, minister of worship, and pastor. While teaching communication and logic courses at colleges in Minnesota he earned his M.B.A. in 2013. He has published magazine articles, curricula, and newspaper articles. He is married to Ruslana and has two sons, Julian and Nicholas, both of whom have inherited their grandfather’s genius for math and science, and their mother’s good looks. Westerlund currently resides in Wisconsin.
Have written many scripts, several books, a slew of curricula and reams of scholarly papers. Worked for NBC and Disney, submitted scripts to Disney, Warner Bros., etc.,
Pittsburgh, PA., Bettendorf, Iowa, Kirksville, MO, Koyaguchi, Japan, Iowa City, IA, Glendale, Tujunga, La Crescenta, and Montrose, CA, Midlothian, VA, Arden Hills, White Bear Lake, Blaine, Forest Lake, and Little Canada, MN, Middleton and Cross Plains, WI.
Busboy, dishwasher, cook, Resident Assistant, landscaper/lawnmower, English teacher, missionary, salesman, night auditor, mail room clerk, NBC page, Disney Channel assistant, administrative assistant, teaching assistant, technological assistant, interim director of technology, Director of Drama, Program Director, Minister of Worship, Senior Pastor, college instructor, manager, trainer, public speaker, preacher, writer, entrepreneur, Financial Specialist, contractor/consultant, president, Interim Pastor,blogger.
Son, brother, cousin, nephew, grandson, grandnephew, brother-in-law, uncle, fiance, husband, son-in-law, father, grand-uncle.
Bachelor of Arts: Communication Arts with emphasis in Broadcasting and Film – University of Iowa
Master of Divinity – Bethel Seminary
Master of Business Administration – Bethel University
Instructed: Ethics, Critical Thinking, Computer Applications, Career Success, Sociology, Psychology, Verbal and Written Communication, Humanities, Public Speaking, Professional Development, CIS, Logic, Religion, Film in Society, Introduction to Literature, Professional Communication II and Celebrating Diversity.
The Bible, War and Peace, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Why the West Rules…for Now, The Iliad and The Odyssey, Edgar Allan Poe, The Sea Wolf, Moby Dick, The Lord of the Rings, The Divine Comedy, A Prayer for Owen Meany,
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Voltaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Dan Brown, John Irving, Vonnegut, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, Justin Cronin, Ayn Rand.
Somewhere in Time, The Sound of Music, Terminator series, Star Wars series, Star Trek series, Moulin Rouge, Inception, The Game, The Matrix series, Band of Brothers, Contact and Interstellar.
Purple, Autumn, 3rd grade, Somewhere in Time, Dead Poets Society, War and Peace, reading, writing, movies, Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Pirates, 1993 Pontiac Banshee, pizza, Coke, Paris, Polo, Nike, X-Files, CCM.
Theology, critical thinking, logic, theodicy, social justice, worldview, film theory, etc.
Mexico City, Acapulco, Taxco, London, Madrid, Burgos, Santander, Manila, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Paris, Amsterdam, Kiev, Buzhanka, Winnipeg, Stockholm.
Wants to go to Switzerland, Rome, dozens of archaeological sites, Jerusalem, Cairo, Kenya. Wants to publish more books, take my family water skiing, repelling, alpine skiing, snorkeling, to the Louvre and British Museum, Eiffel Tower, Great Wall of China, ballooning, sky diving, and on mission trips to Africa and Eastern Europe, doctorate.
robwesterlund.com 