William Strauss

William Strauss (1947–2007) was a renowned speaker, writer, historian, playwright, theater director, and performer, and an authority on generational change in American history. He passed away on December 18, 2007, after a nine-year battle with pancreatic cancer, leaving behind four grown children and his wife, Janie. Family, friends, and colleagues honored his life at a public memorial, “A Life Made Full,” on March 2, 2008.

Strauss was a founding partner of the consulting firm LifeCourse Associates. He worked as a marketing, personnel, and government affairs consultant to numerous corporate and nonprofit clients and spoke and wrote extensively on the collective personalities of today’s generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how they will shape America’s future.

Strauss coauthored several books on generations with Neil Howe, all best sellers widely used by businesses, colleges, government agencies, and political leaders of both parties. Their first book, Generations (1991), is a history of America told as a sequence of generational biographies. Generations, said Newsweek, is “a provocative, erudite, and engaging analysis of the rhythms of American life.” 

Vice President Al Gore called it “the most stimulating book on American history that I have ever read” and sent a copy to every member of Congress. Newt Gingrich called it “an intellectual tour de force.” Their second book, 13th Gen (1993), remains the best-selling nonfiction book ever written about Generation X. Of Howe and Strauss’s third book, The Fourth Turning (1997), Dan Yankelovich said, “Immensely stimulating…. We will never be able to think about history in the same way.” 

The Boston Globe wrote, “If Howe and Strauss are right, they will take their place among the great American prophets.”Strauss and Howe’s fourth book on generations, Millennials Rising (2000), has been widely quoted in the media for its insistence that today's new crop of teens and kids are very different from Generation X and, on the whole, doing much better than most adults think. 

“Forget Generation X-and Y, for that matter,” says The Washington Post, “The authors make short work of most media myths that shape our perceptions of kids these days.” LifeCourse Associates has since released several application books on Millennials—including Recruiting Millennials Handbook for the United States Army (2001), Millennials Go To College (2003), and Millennials and the Pop Culture (2005). A Second Edition of Millennials Go To College was recently released, and Millennials in the Workplace, a study of the newest generation as they enter the workforce, will be released soon.