Duane Herrmann

From Bahaikipedia

Duane L. Herrmann is a native of Kansas (born 1951), he entered the Bahá'í community in 1969. During his college years he pioneered to Hays, Kansas where a Spiritual Assembly was soon formed. Returning to Topeka, he became the youngest Chairman of that Assembly. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Topeka Assembly, he provided a historical sketch to honor the original members of the Assembly, his centennial history of the Topeka Bahá'í community grew from that.

He married Susan Roth in 1974 and they had four children. In 1977 he was an original member of the Board of directors of Interfaith of Topeka, one of the earliest such organizations in the nation and twenty-some years later, the first Bahá'í to be its President.

He chose as an extension teaching goal the village of his great grandfather in Bavaria, Germany. On his fourth trip he was able to proclaim the Faith and found a seeker.

He began writing as a child. His first poems were published while he was in high school, and his first prose shortly after he entered university. By 2007 was considered one of "the most recognized poets of Kansas" and included in a special issue of Midwest Quarterly. He is also featured on the State of Kansas poetry website and the Kansas Center for the Book site. In 2007 his book on the first century of the Topeka Bahá'í community was awarded the Ferguson Kansas History Book Award for its contribution to Kansas History. By that date his poetry, histories and other work had been published in a dozen countries in four languages. This was achieved despite being dyslexic, with ADD and cyclothymia.