In 1969, he was hired as an assistant editor on the
New Standard Encyclopedia, published by the Standard Educational Corporation. He became associate editor, social sciences, in 1974, and senior editor in 1979. He started writing separately-published articles on soul music in 1976, in outlets including the
Chicago Sun-Times and
Record Exchanger. He became rhythm and blues editor for
Goldmine in 1985, and in all has contributed over 500 articles to journals including the
Illinois Entertainer,
The Reader,
Juke Blues, and
Living Blues. He has written
liner notes on many soul and R&B musicians, including
Jackie Wilson,
Gene Chandler,
Curtis Mayfield, and
Dinah Washington, as well as biographies and overview chapters in reference works including
The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music,
The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music,
Encyclopædia Britannica (2000 edition), and
American National Biography. Starting in the early 1990s he wrote in journals (in particular
Journal of Sport History) and in encyclopedias on the development of sport in the United States, especially on the history of high school sports. Professionally, he left Standard Educational Corp. in 1996, and worked for Planning/Communications and Charles D. Spencer & Associates before becoming reference librarian at
Lewis University,
Romeoville, Illinois, from 2001 - 2016. His published books include: •
Chicago Soul,
University of Illinois Press, 1991 ::The book won the Certificate of Excellence for scholarly works from the Illinois State Historical Society, 1992; and the ARSC Award for Excellence In Historical Recorded Sound Research from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, 1992. •
Blackwell Guide To Soul Recordings (editor),
Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1993 •
Doowop: The Chicago Scene, University of Illinois Press, 1996 ::The book won the ARSC Award for Excellence In Historical Recorded Sound Research from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, 1997. •
The Rise of American High School Sports and the Search for Control, 1880-1930,
Syracuse University Press, 2013 •
DuPage Roots: Then and Now, (editor with Richard Thompson),
DuPage County Historical Society, 2022 •
Modern Women and Sports in Interwar Chicago, 1918-1941,
Syracuse University Press, 2025 == Personal life ==