Lawrence L. Rettig was born in 1941 in Middle Amana to parents who were born and raised in Iowa’s Community of True Inspiration. Most recently the special assistant to the vice president for research at the University of Iowa, he lives in South Amana in his wife’s family home, the last house built during the old order. The author of Amana Today: A History of the Amana Colonies from 1932 to the Present, he writes regularly for the websites Dave’s Garden, All Things Plants, and Cubits.