M. Eprevel Law

You can do whatever you decide you want to do if you are willing to commit yourself totally to that. When you say you will commit totally to that, that doesn’t mean doing something bad to others. I will do good to myself and others, because we are all in this together. You may be unlucky to live in an area where there is nothing good but that doesn’t mean from all things that you can’t emerge from it. In the worst of things there is some good, as in the best of things there is some bad.

M. Eprevel Law

My name is Doctor Ep Law. Ep is the nickname of the second son of Joseph. I was born on August 19, 1943. I was born on the South side of Chicago, a path to nowhere except poverty and an early death. No one went anywhere, not expecting it either.

Some people got lucky and made some money but were never planning beyond the next hour. My family was different. Both of my parents were educated. My father said that you can escape the grip of poverty through education. They say it is a key to escape.

My father was German-Irish and Israeli Jew; my mother was African-American. Like Obama, I describe myself as a mutt. I have four siblings. My mother died in a February, which is the same month that she gave birth to my youngest sibling. I was seven when she died in my arms. During my mother’s funeral, my father got very ill. Before he died he hired Aunt Ida as our caretaker. She was very old, maybe over 60 years old.

In the Jewish tradition, the oldest son goes off to go about the father’s business. When I was twelve I did just that. Whatever money I made, I sent some home, but some I kept. I still went to school, working afterward. I did odd jobs, such as cleaning pig pens, raking leaves, and shoveling snow. Whatever I needed was on my back in a little pack.

I made it to Minnesota in 1965 to go to the U of M, using money I earned working, I had saved and invested in the stock market. The money from winning science competitions also helped pay the way. I finished with a PhD in entomology, the study of bugs. I was supposed to learn how to breed plants, like potatoes, that are insectresistant.

I then went back and got a Masters. I did Post-Doctoral work in theology. I met the lady of my life in 1966 after a midnight Easter church service. We had a date every Sunday to the church at the Newman Center. My adopted family rejected her. Maybe I’m stubborn, but we are still married forty-two years later. We have two kids and a grandson.