Hans-Henning Mündel was born on March 31, 1942, in Kosten, then Germany, during World War II, of transplanted German Balts from Riga. By the time he was three and a half years old, Henning had been a refugee twice: first in January, 1945, then again in August, the same year. With his parents and siblings he landed in bomb-devastated Düsseldorf, for the first three years living in a very crowded refugee-aid shelter home. On immigrating to Canada in 1951, the family settled in the fruit-growing southern Okanagan Valley, near Oliver, BC. There the family eventually purchased a fruit orchard and Henning grew up working in the family orchard and helping neighbours near and far in their orchards, during summers and as needed during mornings or evenings when not in school. Henning obtained his first degree, a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, UBC in Vancouver. Two Masters degrees from the University of California, Davis followed. In June 1966, Henning and Bev Atherstone became engaged. 
 
Henning, 24 years old and a recent Master of Science in Agriculture graduate, joined the Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO) as a volunteer from Canada to India for three years. Most of the first year was spent as farm manager among the Paniyas of the Nilgiri Hills. That was from 1966 to 1967. The Paniyas had just been moved to that land, donated by the Madras Government to the Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association (NAWA), when CUSO made arrangements for Henning to join NAWA. Agriculture was just one of the areas Henning found himself involved in, others being various areas of social welfare, schooling, treating the sick, and all the while living in quite modest circumstances himself. 
 
Almost a quarter century after Henning left the Paniyas, the Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association (NAWA) made the following comments in its 1990/91 Annual Report:
“By extraordinary good fortune, Dr. Narasimhan was, at this crucial time, approached by CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas). He was offered the voluntary services of a young Canadian graduate newly qualified in Agricultural studies. Hans-Henning Muendel joined us in 1966 and laboured unsparingly and wholeheartedly to guide the bewildered Paniyas to clear scrub jungle and to plant tapioca, a quickly maturing crop, which could become a basic food for the colonists. He had qualities of intelligence, initiative, perseverance, endurance and compassion, and to him NAWA and this colony owe a great deal. He was prepared to tolerate harsh living and working conditions, which would be completely unacceptable to even sympathetic paid Indian workers or to present-day volunteers. He welded the 25 families into a working and co-operative group, though handicapped by his lack of knowledge of their language and culture or of South Indian agricultural practices. He was dependent largely on Kurian, who had very limited English, for communication with them. It says much for his personality and impact, that, when he has revisited NAWA's colony, several times during the intervening 24 years, the original members have greeted him with joy and affection. At this time what this experiment lacked in resources to develop the land was partially compensated by the enthusiasm and determination of Dr. Narasimhan and this young Canadian volunteer. Their efforts were strengthened by their warm and inspiring rapport with the simple Paniyas whom no one had previously respected.”  
 
On June 25, 2007, after an initial e-mail contact with NAWA, K.Vijayakumar, in charge of the NAWA administration for most of the past decade, replied to Henning as follows:
“It was indeed a pleasure to hear from you after such a long time. We are also happy that you are planning to bring out a book on the Paniyas with whom you worked during the early years of the evolution of the Paniya Farm. I still remember your … visit years later during which the Paniyas remembered you fondly and with affection. I myself have been working with NAWA since the later part of 1977 and among all the tribal communities the Paniyas are something special to me because of their simplicity and happy go lucky attitude.”  
 
After leaving the Paniyas, Henning joined the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute in Phaltan, Maharasthra State, where he stayed two years, initiating a safflower breeding and development project. After the first year there, he returned to California and married Bev. Together they came to India for another year, leaving with a two week old son, Martin, born in Poona. Henning undertook his Ph.D. studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where also their first daughter, Stephanie, was born. A two-year wheat breeding assignment with CIDA through the University of Manitoba was completed in Kenya, where another daughter, Veronika, Bev's and Henning's third child, was born. Three children born on three continents! Germany and Ethiopia followed, with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ Ltd.), with Henning as Plant Breeder / Project Manager for starting a Plant Genetic Resources Centre in Addis Ababa.   
 
From 1978 to 2007 Henning was a research scientist (Plant Breeder) at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Here he was assigned the development of 'new crops', which eventually concentrated on soybeans, safflower and then dry beans.   
 
A 2½ year secondment, from 1989 to 1991 to a CIDA project in Pakistan was undertaken, with canola development as the objective. In retirement, Henning and Bev (still active as a psychologist) continue to live in Lethbridge, Alberta. 

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Hans-Henning Muendel
PO Box 21031, West View Mall,
Lethbridge, AB T1K 6X4 Canada