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Chip Anthony St. Clair ( born August 1, 1975) is an American author, ghostwriter, screenwriter, and motivational speaker. He is best known for his inspirational memoir The Butterfly Garden: Surviving Childhood on the Run with one of America's Most Wanted, which was translated into Lithuanian. St. Clair was a featured author of 2008 at the BookExpo of America in Los Angeles, California. St. Clair's story has been featured on Dateline and Good Morning America among others. In 2004, St. Clair worked with legislators and helped to create and pass the Identity Theft Protection Act in Michigan.

In 2005, St. Clair was honored with a U.S. Congressional Record on behalf of his ardent child advocacy work. Prior to founding his own organization, St. Clair was Regional Director of the Michigan chapter of Justice for Children, where he made tremendous strides in aiding children caught up in the nation’s distressed child welfare system. He helped draft legislative initiatives, community awareness programs, and internship programs that still resonate among victims, survivors, and key stakeholders in the child welfare community. St. Clair’s direct involvement in the chapter’s casework played a substantial role in the apprehension of two known child predators whose brutality toward children grabbed national headlines. St. Clair worked with legislators across the aisle and national child advocates, Marc Klaas and Mark Lunsford, to help pass Jessica's Law in Michigan, Montana, and Maryland.

In 2007, St. Clair and his wife, Lisa, founded St. Clair Butterfly Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps bring therapeutic creative arts programs to children and teens in disadvantaged communities. Universities and high schools across the country have incorporated The Butterfly Garden memoir into their curriculum, and St. Clair’s advocacy work and his riveting lectures have become an integral part of the training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and DHS is several states. St. Clair has participated in media interviews worldwide helping to raise awareness about Childhood trauma. St. Clair continues to share across the country his message of hope, triumph, and the discovery of the true measure of strength each of us has when we can simply gain the courage to look within.

Early and personal life
Chip St. Clair was born on August 1, 1975 in Elkhart, Indiana, the only child in a highly dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic mother, Leslie Weaver, and a maniacal and abusive father he believed to be a highly decorated United States war veteran. St. Clair attributes his love and voracious appetite for literature as a sanctuary and source of grounding as a child. St. Clair moved over thirty times across the country throughout his childhood. In 1990, his family settled in Southfield, Michigan, and in his senior year of high school, St. Clair met and began dating Lisa Muethel.

On January 22, 1998 while celebrating his fiancée Lisa's birthday dinner at his parent's home in Auburn Hills, Michigan, St. Clair was rushed in an ambulance to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder after being brutally assaulted by his father during a dinner table disagreement. After being released from hospital, St. Clair learned his father had been taken to Oakland County Jail for domestic abuse. Upon calling his Aunt, Christine Clark, for moral support of his decision to bring charges against his father for the assault, St. Clair learned that the man he called Dad, the man he knew as David St. Clair was in fact a fugitive by the name of Michael Dean Grant – an escaped child murderer who had been on the run for nearly 26 years with the help of his mother, Leslie Eyvonne Weaver. St. Clair ultimately turned his father in to authorities, and shortly after learned his father was a possible child serial killer; the prime suspect in the deaths of at least 5 other children. In 1969, 18-month-old Jeffrey Balsley died in Michael Grant's care of Subdural hematoma, with bruises all over his body, one year prior to his conviction of Voluntary Manslaughter in the stomping death of 3-year-old Scott Ingersoll. In 2005, Grant was named a prime suspect in the notorious Oakland County Child Killer case. Michigan State Police went to the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana where Grant was serving out his sentence to compare his DNA to that of the suspected DNA evidence from the Oakland County Child Killer. In St. Clair's memoir The Butterfly Garden, he chronicles his life spent unknowingly on the run and of his struggle to not go down the same path as his father.

Family
St. Clair married his high school sweetheart Lisa Muethel on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1999. St. Clair.

Memoir
The Butterfly Garden: Surviving Childhood on the Run with One of America's Most Wanted Health Communications (2008) ISBN 0-7573-0695-0

Poetry
[https://www.amazon.com/Tumbling-Tomorrow-Letters-International-Library/dp/0795151438 The International Library of Poetry: Tumbling into Tomorrow, Helios and Terra, pg. 188 (2002)] ISBN 0-7951-5143-8

Career
St. Clair received his BA in Creative Writing at University of Massachusetts Amherst. St. Clair is a Ghostwriter & Project Editor at ForbesBooks. St. Clair is Co-Founder of the St. Clair Butterfly Foundation. St. Clair is Co-Owner of Kaleidoscope Entertainment, a content creation company. St. Clair has several works currently being shopped. In addition, he is co-authoring with his wife, Lisa St. Clair, a follow-up to his memoir, The Butterfly Garden.

Awards

 * Nominated Speaker of the Year by Olivet College, 2009


 * Nominated Author of the Year by the Michigan Library Association, 2008


 * U.S. Congressional Record on behalf of his child advocacy work, 2005

News

 * Huffington Post
 * Life on the Run Investigation Discovery: Devil You Know


 * Son of Child Killer Helps Kids Cope Through Creative Outlets C & G article


 * Depression and Identity: How Both Move You Forward Your Life After Trauma interview


 * Family Secrets: Parents Prey On Children's Identities As Victims Stay Silent Huffington Post


 * The Roth Show


 * Interview with UK magazine CHAT


 * The Dr. Pat Show


 * NPR Affiliate - Morehead State


 * Northwest Public Radio. Round Table


 * Meijer Bus Tour: READ THIS! Author Tour


 * League of Women Voters


 * State Tour by Authors Kicks Off in Kalamazoo


 * BookExpo America Author's Booth | Meet and Greet | Signing


 * Author Chip St. Clair Inspires Troy Athens Students Rochester Post


 * Abused son tells a story of hope New Haven Register


 * Voice of the Oakland County Child Killer? - Part I WXYZ ABC Affiliate


 * Voice of the Oakland County Child Killer? - Part II WXYZ ABC Affiliate


 * Madison Heights School


 * Helen DeVos Childrens


 * BookExpo America


 * National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse


 * |+ABUSE+VICTIM%27S+STORY+TOUCHES+STUDENTS Abuse Victim's Story Touches Students Detroit Free Press


 * Child Killer's Death Leaves Son with Questions Detroit Free Press
 * Media Circus Delays Questioning Detroit Free Press


 * Could My Dad Be The Oakland County Child Killer? Detroit Free Press


 * Unraveling Secrets Brings Self-Discovery Detroit Free Press


 * Man Fights to Keep His Killer Dad in Jail Good Morning America


 * Secrets, Lies Mark Man's Life... Detroit Free Press