Centerville: An Historical Novel

Wiegand, Richard Otto: - Richard Otto Wiegand was born on September 20, 1948 and grew up on the Wiegand Farm in Town Centerville in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. The Wiegand farm has been in the family since 1848. Richard operated the farm in the 1980s. Local and family history were common topics at the dinner table. Richard started doing family research in his 30s and has never stopped. That research included two trips to Germany (1987, 2003). Richard attained three Degrees in Dairy Science (BS, MS, PhD) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in addition to an MA in African Studies from Ohio University. He was employed by University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension in Northwest Wisconsin from 2004 until he retired in 2017. Richard has done considerable international work, serving in the US Peace Crops in Kenya and Paraguay, conducting graduate research in Ethiopia and consulting with the African Development Bank in Ivory Coast. He has done Farmer-to-Farmer and other short-term projects in more than a dozen other countries. Richard received an Honorary Recognition Award for his international work from the University of Wisconsin, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in 2016. Richard was a co-founder of Centreville Settlement, Inc. in 1982, a Centerville historic preservation group and served as Vice-President, President and Board Member. He was also a co-founder of The Greater Centerville Historians that collected Centerville oral history from 2000-2015. He has been a member the Manitowoc County Historical Society, the Sheboygan County Society and Sheboygan County Historical Research Center for over thirty years.