Herman Lerpiss, a member of the sprawling Lerpiss family of Pawnee, Indiana, owns and operates PawneePawn, a pawn shop in the center of town. Herman studied Biochemical Engineering at Indiana University and earned his PhD in Chemistry from Stanford. At the age of 29, he began inhaling nitrous and is now basically a burnout. His name is sometimes spelled Hermann, with two n s, because his brain does not work well and he often forgets how to spell it. He is 2nd cousin to Kurt Lerpiss, uncle to Lalyssa Lerpiss, and third cousin to Dennis Lerpiss.