Thiel College Awards 2010 Haller Entrepreneurial Honor to Bail USA Chairman Harvey Child

Oct. 15, 2010

GREENVILLE, PA—Harvey Childs, founder and chairman of the board of Bail USA, will receive the 2010 Haller Enterprise Institute Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Thiel College at a dinner ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 6:30 p.m. in the Sawhill-Georgian Room of Thiel’s Howard Miller Student Center.

Given annually to a business owner who has demonstrated entrepreneurial leadership, the award, now in its 16th year, will be presented to Childs by Thiel President Dr. Troy VanAken and Professor David Miller, executive director of the Haller Enterprise Institute.

Childs, who has been a licensed bail agent for 45 years, entered the surety bail profession in 1956, the third generation in his family to do so. A native of Pittsburgh, he made his home in Mercer County and for nine years posted bail bonds for clients throughout the tri-county area. In 1969, Childs expanded to include 16 additional western Pennsylvania counties, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Ohio. In 1970, he founded the Pennsylvania Association of Bail Bond Underwriters and successfully challenged Pennsylvania to recognize bail agents as “officers of the court.”

During the next 10 years, he expanded his growing network of professional bail agents into 25 additional states and was one of the founders of the Professional Bail Agents of the United States (PBUS). In 1982, Childs partnered with his assistant, Cheryl Burns, to form Bail USA, Inc., which is now the largest underwriter of surety bail in the country. In 1999, Burns assumed the presidency of Bail USA in order to allow Childs to spend more time traveling and visiting the company’s bail agents. Currently, Bail USA has 2,500 bail agents in 42 states.

Childs holds bachelor’s degree from Villanova University in Havana, Cuba, and an advanced degree in Hispanic Studies from the University of Seville in Spain. He is fluent in five languages and enjoys Spanish and American history.

Childs and his wife, Uta, reside in Greenville, Pa., and Ft. Lauderdale Beach, Fla., and have one grown son, Alan, a doctor of psychology in Chicago, Ill.

The Haller Enterprise Institute, originally named the Thiel College Enterprise Institute when it was organized in 1983, was renamed in 1996 when Pittsburgh residents Dr. Henry E. and Grace Mary Haller provided a $1 million gift to develop entrepreneurial education at Thiel College.      

About Thiel College

Founded in 1866, Thiel College is a liberal arts, sciences and professional studies institution located in Greenville, Pa., that provides a great balance of academic challenge, personal and social involvement, and exceptional value to its 1,100 students. For more information about Thiel College, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, visit www.thiel.edu or call 800-24-THIEL.

–30–

.