The Author


Wayne ParmanWayne T. Parman

 

In my boyhood Dallas neighborhood near Love Field, I waded daily in a beautiful clear-water creek, walked to grade school and junior high, and played football in the hottest weather imaginable. One of my sisters still lives a few miles from there. I left UT Austin at the end of the Darryl Royal football era (or was it the beginning of the Viet Nam war era?) and went to grad school at U Penn in Philadelphia.

Trying to live up to some of my youthful idealism, I first worked at the Budget Bureau of the State of Illinois in Springfield. Moving to northern Illinois, I later fashioned a business career around production of food products: popcorn, pet food, and livestock feed ingredients. This has kept me in the Chicago area and today I reside in Oak Park with my wife Jana. My two step-sons reside in Michigan where they are in college. My too-soon-grown-up daughters live in Chicago. We all are members of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Lincoln Park.

For many years, I listened patiently to high school students at St Paul’s express doubts about God’s existence and faith’s value. I wrote these stories and plays to show them that many famous people struggled with their own faith in God. At St. Paul’s, we still hear from doubters, but we remind them that we all can be “smart and spiritual” at the same time. These stories demonstrate that. If you would like to contact me about the stories or plays, please email me using the contact page.