Henry Dietrich Remple was born Heinrich Dietrich Rempel on November 25, 1908 in Alexanderwohl, Molotschna Colony, Russia (now Ukraine) to German Mennonite parents. Facing famine in their region following the Russian Civil War, Henry, his parents, and his 8 siblings sought to emigrate to America by way of Crimea and Batum (now Batumi), Georgia in 1922. While waiting in Batum for several months, six of Remple's siblings and both of his parents succumbed to typhus. From Batum, Remple and his two surviving sisters, Aganetha and Agnes, traveled to Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, then to Cherbourg, France, and finally New York in October 1923. The siblings were fostered by different Mennonite families in Nebraska, Henry by the Epp family in Henderson.

Henry learned English and assimilated into American life quickly, studying at Tabor College in Kansas from 1928-1930 and then the University of Minnesota from 1931-1933, earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology there. Through their mutual involvement in a German club at Tabor College, Henry and Mariana Lohrenz met in the early 1930s and were married on August 1, 1936 in Hillsboro, Kansas. They had a daughter, Lucy, in 1937 and a son, Robert (Robie), in 1942.

Remple's first professional employment on leaving the University of Minnesota was at the Farm Credit Administration in Wichita, Kansas as a Personnel Officer from 1934-1937. He then took a position as an Industrial Counselor at a Federal Reformatory in El Reno, Oklahoma from 1937-1946, during which time he began pursuing his PhD. He took leave from the Federal Reformatory following the entry of the United States into World War II, joining the Army first as a Personnel Consultant in Houston and then as a Prisoner of War Interrogation Officer in Europe from 1942-1945. On returning from service, Henry changed the spelling of his surname from Rempel to Remple.

Remple left the Federal Reformatory shortly after his return from the Army, studying for one quarter at Stanford University in 1946, and then returning to Kansas to pursue his PhD in psychology at the University of Kansas (KU). He joined the KU Psychology Department as an instructor from 1946-1949 and graduated with his PhD in 1950. He then joined the Veterans Administration (VA, now known as Veterans Affairs), working in a variety of positions within the agency for more than 30 years: Supervisory Psychologist in the Mental Hygiene Clinic at the VA Regional Office in Kansas City, Missouri from 1950-1955; Chief of the Psychology Training Unit at the VA Medical Center in Topeka, Kansas from 1957-1959; and Chief of the Psychology Service at the VA Medical Center in Leavenworth, Kansas from 1959-1981. From 1967-1981, by virtue of an arrangement between the VA, the Menninger Foundation, and the University of Kansas, Remple worked on a part-time basis as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at KU. Remple left the VA in 1981 to start his own private psychology practice in Lawrence, Kansas, which he operated until his retirement in 1999.

Remple was very involved throughout the entirety of his career with the boards and various committees of several professional organizations, including notably the American Psychological Association, the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, the Douglas County Mental Health Association, and the Kansas Psychological Association.

In retirement, Remple wrote and published his memoirs based on his childhood diaries under the title From Bolshevik Russia to America: A Mennonite Family Story in 2001. A short documentary about his journey was made in 2007, produced by Take Ten Inc., called Henry D. Remple: Finding Hope in Troubled Times. Remple died on April 9, 2010 at the age of 101.

Mariana Lohrenz Remple was born November 28, 1912 in Kansas, the daughter of Henry W. Lohrenz and Anna M. (Friesen) Lohrenz. She attended the Tabor Academy in Hillsboro, Kansas from 1925-1926 and 1927-1928, Atherton Girls High School in Louisville, Kentucky from 1926-1927, Tabor College from 1928-1929 and 1930-1931, Kern County Junior College in Bakersfield, California from 1929-1930, the University of California in the summer of 1930, the University of Kansas in the summer of 1932, and Bethel College from 1933-1934, graduating from Bethel with a bachelor's degree in science.

Mariana was a student teacher in District 40 of Marion County, Kansas from 1932-1933, and following her graduation from Bethel College, she became a teacher at Bucklin School in Bucklin, Kansas from 1934-1936. Mariana undertook graduate studies and taught in child psychology in the mid to late 1940s at the University of Kansas.

From the 1950s until her death, Mariana dedicated her life to Girl Scouts in Douglas County, Kansas. She served as a neighborhood chairman, Girl Scout council board member, trainer, leader of Mariner Troop 201/660, and as a founding member of the Lawrence Hidden Valley Committee. She died on September 19, 2000.

[Information retrieved from collection materials, findagrave.com, and Henry Remple's obituary at https://warrenmcelwain.com/obituary/Henry-D-Remple/.]