Joe and Jeanne Epple Family Fund

The Epple family has a true love for baseball, and it shows. All five of the Epple children have participated in the sport, and have inspired their children to play, too. To keep their love of Mt. Pleasant area baseball growing, they have established the Joe and Jeanne Epple Family Fund. “Dad was worried that after he was gone, the baseball facilities would go downhill and wanted to make sure that the program was taken care of,” said Luke Epple.

Joe Epple played baseball all the way through the collegiate level, at Central Michigan University. After his four years of playing at the college he decided to stay and join the graduate program and be the assistant coach for the team. This is where he met his future wife, Jeanne.

Joe and Jeanne started their family in Mt. Pleasant. Joe worked as a teacher for the Mt. Pleasant High School and was the head coach of their baseball team.  Through his 34 years of various coaching positions with the Mt. Pleasant High School Baseball team, he touched the lives of many children and was a mentor and fatherly figure to them all. When the baseball facilities at the schools needed something, the Epple’s were there to help, whether financially or otherwise.

While Joe was teaching and coaching, Jeanne Epple was shuttling their five children to their sports practices and making sure that things at the home were taken care of. She went to work in the office for Mt. Pleasant Schools when their oldest son, Luke was sixteen, but she was still at all the kid’s games. “I was always the cheerleader in the stands,” Jeanne said.

The Joe and Jeanne Epple Family Fund will be used to ensure that Joe's hard work and dedication to the baseball program of Mt. Pleasant will be everlasting. The money from the fund will help to support the sport's facilities and/or any other expenses that may arise. Joe Epple will forever be remembered as a coach, father and mentor to all.