Colonel Mark Lowry II, USA (ret.) “graduated from West Point and a Ph.D. at Syracuse University.  A human geographer and former army colonel, he has published in books, popular magazines, newspapers and professional journals.  Colonel Mark Lowry is the author of White Pilgrim from Sumac Ridge.

According to the book description of White Pilgrim from Sumac Ridge, “An authentic page-turning novel whose main character is a white boy spawned by the rural bi-racial society of south Mississippi during the turbulent mid-twentieth century. We meet him in 1948 when he is eleven years old and already deeply committed within the separate white and black subcultures. Torn between the two, he advances through a series of life-altering experiences. He goes off to college and returns after a twenty-year exile to find the place of his roots changed beyond recognition and with that the destruction of his dreams and his faith in a distant impersonal government. Challenge and adventure, triumph and tragedy, race and violence, promise and betrayal, love and heartbreak - the book has it all. A rich source of social commentary, history, and geography for anyone who loves a good story. From beginning to end, a thrilling adventure by the award-winning author who was there.”