Take a moment to read some of the online comments at amazon.com about Donn Ziebell’s book My Letters to a Prisoner — I had not met and you’ll find a small but captivated group of people who were touched, inspired and entertained by the memoir.

In the book’s foreword Ziebell, MetE’57, writes that his letters to the incarcerated stranger were intended to give the man “tangible proof that someone really cares and has invested quality, personal time to communicate with him.” Ziebell says that the non-fiction work details his “experiences, travel, activities and married life” and hopes it will encourage others to also write to lonely people.

Ziebell is an accomplished artist (yurart.com) who worked in manufacturing and consulting for 30 years and spent a number of years as a licensed minister in The Evangelical Free Church of America. He presented business seminars in Russia in the 1990s, which provided material for a “cross-cultural experiential dissertation” for his Ph.D. from The Union Institute University in Cincinnati, Ohio.