Dean Koontz Education Background

Best-selling author Dean Koontz was born July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania. He was the only child born to Ray and Florence Koontz, and grew up in abject poverty in the rural town of Bedford, Pennsylvania in the south central part of the state.
After graduation from high school, Dean left home and attended Shippensburg State College, which is now Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. While at Shippensburg, Dean majored in English and had a minor in communications. He also won a coveted award from Atlantic Monthly for Creative Writing while a student; no other student from Shippensburg had ever earned that honor. Also during his college years, he kept up his relationship with his high school sweetheart, Gerda Ann Cerra, and they married upon his college graduation in 1967.
He initially took a job as an English teacher at Mechanicsburg High School, but then worked for the Appalachian Poverty Program for a year, during which time he became disillusioned and distrustful of government. This distrust of the government is also a common theme in his writing.