Rev. M. Duane Sinn was raised on a farm in Nebraska, and attended the University of Nebraska for one year before joining the Army Air Corps during the Korean War. While in basic training, fellow recruit Jerry Van Dyke helped him deal with his undiagnosed dyslexia in a humorous way.
Upon discharge from Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii, Duane returned to Nebraska with his wife and twin sons to attend college and work various jobs: insurance salesman, radio announcer, window dresser, ladies lingerie clerk, and part time minister, just to name a few. It would take twelve years to earn his bachelor's degree from Hastings College and finally, his Master of Divinity Degree from Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
In 1968, he came to Terre Haute, Indiana as the Methodist campus minister for Indiana State University and Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. Twelve years later, he joined LBJ's War on Poverty as Executive Director of the Western Indiana Community Action Agency.
Fiercely independent, Duane has always followed his own moral compass when faced with difficult choices. He has been married to author Lucia Sinn for twenty-six years, and they have six grown children. They live in a century old farmhouse in Indiana, and spend winters in a condominium overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in South Texas.
