David Shaber taught advanced screenwriting at Columbia University's School of the Arts during the nineties. He had the rare gift of being able to translate his professional experience into a coherent university course - most of the other professors at Columbia at the time were either too academic, or were simply telling stories from their field experience. David Shaber grew up in Cleveland and abandonded a pre-med education for the Yale Drama School, when he discovered that the theater was closer to his heart. The wrote - and produced - plays for the stage as well as screenplays and had success in both. He wrote 40 commissioned screenplays, 8 of which were made into feature films. He also wrote the final draft for "The Hunt for Red October" - the John McTiernan film starring Sean Connery - for which he is not credited as a writer.