Award winning novelist R. Samuel Baty is a retired U. S. Air Force officer and a retired chief scientist. He received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1960. He spent the next 22 years in the United States Air Force. During this time, he received a Master of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Engineering from UCLA. His last assignment in the Air Force was with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He subsequently retired from TRW, Inc. as a chief scientist of an operating unit. Since 2000, he has taught for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and is now an adjunct professor. He has authored numerous technical reports, has been interviewed in prestigious journals, and is an avid reader of WW2 and post WW2 history. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Linda.

The author presently teaches aerodynamics, space topics such as interplanetary travel, math, business, and engineering for ERAU. He has served as Committee Chairman for a number of graduate research projects. In all, he has taught 19 different courses. In 2004, he was named outstanding faculty member of ERAU's Southwest Region.

In 2003, while continuing to teach, the author decided that he wanted to try something entirely different. With his wife Linda's blessing, he took his knowledge of World War II and put it with suspense, romance, and adventure. The result is his first novel, "Footsteps to Forever: A World War II Thriller."

In 2011, the sequel ("Darkness into Light: A Post World War II Sequel and Thriller") was published through iUniverse. The author has become so attached to the characters that he plans to write two more novels in the series, taking it from 1941 (the start of WW II for the U.S.) through the Vietnam era (1975) and the fall of the Berlin Wall (1991). Recently, he had an epiphany on how the series will end. It is very, very exciting!