Cross & Crescent

Louis Tharp (Butler 1972) began writing at the age of 13. When he began college at Butler University in January 1969, he planned to study journalism.

“I went to Butler because of John Baron, who was the head of the department and well known at the time,” says Tharp. “I also loved cars and my dream was to work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

Following graduation, Tharp served six years in the Indiana National Guard. During that time, he worked coal strikes and natural disasters, but just as important to Tharp, he attended the Defense Information School of Journalism at Fort Benjamin Harrison.

Work

Tharp started his professional career working at the Indianapolis Raceway Park. At the same time, he wrote for Auto Week magazine, Car and Driver magazine, did photography for UPI at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and did freelance writing for The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News on automobile racing.

Tharp went on to work for Indiana Bell and then Caldwell Van Riper, an Indianapolis-based advertising agency. Realizing that because he was gay and that Indiana in the early 1970s wasn’t a place he could be himself and advance his career, he moved to New York City in 1978. He began work for Burson-Marsteller, which at the time was the second largest public relations firm in the world.

“It was a huge jump in my career and was one of the two best jobs I have ever had,” says Tharp.

He worked for a couple other agencies in New York and spent time as a writer for The New York Times. In 1989, Tharp had his first book published by Dow Jones, entitled The Complete Manager’s Guide to Promotional Merchandise. It was one of the top business books of the year. About the same time, his agency was bought out and he was laid off.

“I had slowly gotten smart over the years and realized you don’t work for an agency without a contract,” says Tharp. “So even though they had fired me, they had to honor the terms of my contract and owed me my full salary.”

Tharp tried negotiating with the company to keep him on since he was being paid regardless but they eventually just wrote him a check. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“I just set up shop, started my own company, and that was the last full-time job I had,” he says.

He was working technology PR right as the technology boom hit and was able to create a profitable business. He took equity positions in companies and worked to get them bought or merged. Their stock price would rise and he would cash out.

Changing Lives

As Tharp’s career blossomed, he decided he wanted to help change people’s lives, starting with his own.

“I made the change in my own life at the age of 45. I decided that I was tired of being overweight; I stopped drinking and smoking and decided to become a swimmer.”

Tharp had never been involved with athletics, let alone been a swimmer. He lost 75 pounds and became a competitive swimmer in the masters division.

Tharp won a bronze medal in the 1998 World Masters in the 400 individual medleys. He also earned two gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Gay Games.

By 2000, the technology market dropped, Tharp was 50 years old and looking for something new professionally.

“I had an intern working for me who was 17 years old and he had been diagnosed with arthritis at age 13,” says Tharp. “He talked me into starting TGI Health Works.”

TGI Health Works is contracted by pharmaceutical companies to create an environment where people with chronic diseases can change their quality of life. They do so through diet, exercise, and psychological help.

“If you get people to change their core identity away from this heavily depressing companion they have to live with their entire life, it can bring about dramatic change in the way they view their role in life, position in the world, and their view of themselves,” explains Tharp.

In 2006, Tharp founded a non-profit organization, the Global Healthy Living Foundation with a similar objective to that of TGI Health Works but the company doesn’t market drugs.

The company instead reaches out about how to improve the quality of life, how to avoid becoming a chronic disease sufferer, and providing ways to increase longevity that don’t cost a lot of money. The company also is beginning a 20-year study on the affect of health on a community.

“We believe that living a healthy life, especially in a group will dramatically change that community in an emotional, psychosocial, religious, and business aspect.”

Coaching Total Immersion

At the same time Tharp was working to creating to create a healthy living, he was swimming and training at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. During his practice one day, there was a cadet swimming beside him whom Tharp describes as horrible swimmer. Tharp stopped the cadet and helped him with his stroke mechanics. The cadet improved quickly.

“The next day there were two cadets there, and after about a week they said you should really coach our triathlon team,” says Tharp.

Tharp had reservations because he had never coached before and his sexual orientation may have caused conflict at the military academy. He consulted officers at the academy and got the go ahead and became the swim coach of the West Point Triathlon Team.

When Tharp began with the team they were 16th in the nation. Last year the men’s team finished third overall and women were fifth.

“Obviously, it is swim, bike, and run, so I don’t take all the credit,” says Tharp. “But it was an opportunity for me to contribute to a team effort since I was at Lambda Chi Alpha at Butler.”

A unique coaching tool Tharp uses is sending an email to all the cadets about what practice will entail, including why the team is doing it, how it is done, and its benefits.

“We were in spring training in Clermont, Florida, and I was riding with a couple of officers talking about if you tell a cadet to do something they will overdo,” says Tharp. “I made the joke that if you tell them to do something they will overachieve it, so we started calling the emails the Overachievers Diary.”

Tharp’s coach urged him to post these workout wrap-ups on the internet, which he initially refused. In March 2007, Tharp finally gave in and began working on his second book, The Overachiever’s Diary.

“It was open for discussion. I was told by my coach these are pretty good, I don’t know of any other coach who does this. People don’t tend to wrap up workouts. He said that they are proprietary and we are in a national collegiate battle here. He kept talking to me about putting this in a book and in March 2007 I decided to do it. I have been writing my whole life, so it wasn’t much of a stretch.”

“The whole book is those emails,” says Tharp.

The Overachievers Diary is divided into three section: mechanics, which deals with technique; math, which deals with quantitative assessments, speed index, and efficiency index; and motivation.

“West Point is a very demanding institution that is steeped in tradition and ritual. So it is very important to encourage the use of the ritual while we are training these kids. One of the ways we do this is these emails so they can focus on it and do absolutely their best.”

Fraternity

When Tharp got to Butler University, Lambda Chi Alpha was instantly the fraternity he wanted.

“I also liked it because there was mix of smart guys and guys in sports which added to the reputation of the Fraternity. It seemed to me to be a friendlier place,” says Tharp.

He served the chapter as kitchen steward and as fraternity educator.

“Kitchen steward was a rewarding experience. I don’t think there is any job more demanding then dealing with hungry people,” says Tharp.

Tharp says he has many great memories of the partying at the chapter. He admits there were reckless times, but attributes the success of parties to the level of comfort.

“I really remember the extremely comfortable environment that I was able to live in because of the shared values of all the people in the house. You find your comfort level through intellectual stimulation and diversity. The parties, the dances, the sorority dinners couldn’t have happened with any level of success without it,” says Tharp. “We call it brotherhood, but brotherhood is an overused word, because it more than simply putting your arms around someone and knowing a secret handshake.“