Rick Wolff (July 14, 1951 – April 10, 2023) was an American book editor, author, college coach, broadcaster, and onetime professional baseball player.
A top athlete at Edgemont High School (Scarsdale, NY) where he set numerous records in football and baseball, Wolff was an Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League All-Star and, as a sophomore, played in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
His .571 average was the highest among all players in the White Sox organization that year, and Wolff was awarded a championship ring as the South Bend won the league title that season.
[6] Before joining Kevin Anderson and Associates, Wolf served as Senior Executive Editor of a new business book imprint at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
[7] Prior to landing at HMH, he was a Vice President, Executive Editor of Grand Central Publishing which is part of Hachette Book Group USA.
A few of Wolff's bestselling authors include former General Electric CEO Jack Welch (JACK: Straight from the Gut, which was on the New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller list for six months); personal finance guru Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad, which was on the New York Times Bestseller list for close to seven years); famed golfer Tiger Woods (How I Play Golf); former Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson writing about the 2008 financial crisis (On the Brink), Stanford University professor Robert Sutton's provocative management bestsellers (The No Asshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss); Ted Turner's autobiography (Call Me Ted), humorists James Finn Garner (Politically Correct Bedtime Stories), Bill Geist (Little League Confidential); long-time Ohio politico John Kasich (Stand for Something); Japan-based journalist Robert Whiting (You Gotta Have Wa); economist Stephen Leeb (The Coming Economic Collapse); US Navy Captain Mike Abrashoff (It's Your Ship); and retirement expert Doug Andrew (Missed Fortune 101).
Wolff also acquires narrative non-fiction, including the critically acclaimed Little Pink House by Jeff Benedict, which focused on the controversial U. S. Supreme Court eminent domain case of Susette Kelo; an extraordinary World War II story entitled A Tale of Two Subs by Jonathan McCullough, and The Accountant's Story by Roberto Escobar, the surviving brother (and accountant) of Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel, and Righteous Indignation by conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart.
In addition to Tiger Woods, some of Wolff's other bestselling sports authors include Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, Bo Schembechler, Roger Angell, Roger Kahn, Jim Murray, Peter Golenbock, Grant Hill, Keyshawn Johnson, UConn's Geno Auriemma, Pete Rose, Jeff Benedict (Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL), Mike Sowell (The Pitch That Killed); and Travis Roy (11 Seconds).
With fiction, Wolff guided the writing careers of several top authors, including Matthew Klein (Con Ed), David Fisher (The Good Guys), and Tim Green, who wrote several bestselling thrillers (The Letter of the Law, Fifth Angel, Exact Revenge, The First 48, The Fourth Perimeter).