Joe L. Dudley Keynote Speaker at Napoleon Hill Day

On Monday, Oct. 22, The University of Virginia's College at Wise will celebrate the life and accomplishments of Napoleon Hill, one of Wise County's most renowned natives.
Joe L. Dudley, Sr., president and CEO of Dudley Products, Inc., will deliver two presentations during Napoleon Hill Day. Both lectures are free and open to public.

Napoleon Hill Day begins at 10 a.m. in Greear Gymnasium with an address by Dudley. Dudley will address the fall conference of the Future Business Leaders of America. More than 300 students from high schools across Southwest Virginia are expected to attend. Dudley will address Napoleon Hill Scholars during the afternoon session, which begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Chapel of All Faiths.

One of America's premier African-American entrepreneurs, Dudley became a millionaire by age 40. Based in Kernersville, NC, Dudley Products, Inc. is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of ethnic hair care products in the world.

Dudley, 64, grew up in a three-room farmhouse in the small, rural town of Aurora, NC. He suffered a severe speech impediment, failed the first grade, and was labeled mentally retarded by his teachers. He struggled through high school and later worked his way through college by selling Fuller products. Eventually Dudley and his wife began making their own beauty products in their home and selling them door-to-door. By 1976, the Dudleys had opened a chain of beauty supply stores, beauty salons, and a beauty college, employing more than 400.

In his 1998 book, Walking by Faith, Dudley credits Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich with changing his life.

ABOUT NAPOLEON HILL

Napoleon Hill was born in poverty in a one-room cabin on the Pound River on Oct. 26, 1883. From these humble beginnings, the Wise County native became an advisor to presidents and a best-selling author whose books are still must-reads for business professionals.

During the early 20th century, Hill interviewed the nation's most successful business leaders, including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford. From those interviews, Hill compiled his eight-volume set The Law of Success, a collection of the philosophy of individual achievement.

Hill is credited with coining the phrase, "what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve." As an advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, Hill provided the president with the famous phrase from his inauguration speech, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Some of Hill's most famous books include Think and Grow Rich, which has sold more than 25 million copies, and Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, which he co-authored with W. Clement Stone, a nationally known philanthropist, insurance tycoon and president of the Hill Foundation.

Hill died in 1970, but the Napoleon Hill Foundation, a non-profit educational institution formerly headquartered in Northbrook, Ill. and now based in Wise, remains dedicated to promoting his philosophy and "to making the world a better place in which to live."