Melvin D EppMelvin D. Epp is a Wheaton College graduate with an MS in botany from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in genetics from Cornell University. Following a corporate career in biological research, he retired to his ancestral farm near Whitewater, S to write. Epp has completed an anthology of his mother's prairie folk poetry, which describes the history of the immigration of his West Prussian Anabaptist ancestors in 1876 and the community that his ancestors created in northwest Butler County, KS. Epp has used the collection of 106 poems by Marie Harder Epp to extract the history of Harder family from 1876 to 1995. This includes local reaction to the German language and conscription during the two world wars, as well as the development of a prairie farming community with a church, cemeteries, and schools. Epp is an avid gardener and has served since 2002 as the president of the Wichita Organic Garden Club. He has been named an Honorary Master Gardener of Sedgwick County. He has served on the Board of Directors of Kauffman Museum in North Newton. His current writing project is a genealogical review of his Epp ancestry. Read More Read Less