OCT :Respect
Winston Groom 1943 – 2020
Winston Groom, author whose ‘Forrest Gump’ became a cultural phenomenon, dies at 77
Winston Francis Groom Jr. was an American novelist and non-fiction writer, best known for his
book Forrest Gump, which was adapted into a film in 1994. Groom was born in Washington,
D.C., but grew up in Mobile, Alabama where he attended University Military School (now known
as UMS-Wright Preparatory School). He attended the University of Alabama, where he was a
member of Delta Tau Delta and the Army ROTC, and graduated in 1965. He served in the
Army from 1965 to 1969, including a tour in Vietnam. Groom devotes his time to writing history
books about American wars. More recently he had lived in Point Clear, Alabama, and Long
Island, New York.
He is best known for his book Forrest Gump, which was adapted into a film by Robert Zemeckis
in 1994. The film became a cultural phenomenon, and won six Academy Awards.
He published a sequel, Gump and Co., in 1995. He has also written numerous non-fiction works,
on diverse subjects including the American Civil War and the Great War.