OUR STORY
It Takes a Family
As a born and raised Unitarian Universalist, I know the power of our faith to shape lives and guide families. I grew up in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Manhattan (KS), where I was encouraged to grow and lead from a young age. While in college I led our campus ministry, and after graduating was elected chair of the board of trustees.
I wasn't always clear that ministry was my destination, but I've always been influenced by our values and the sources of our faith. I was an environmental scientist for the Kansas Department of Health & Environment, where I brought time saving innovations to our team that are still used today, and laid the groundwork for addressing sediment and nutrient pollution, which are often overlooked.
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In those years I met my wife, Emily Ragan, who brought with her to our relationship our oldest daughter, Olivia, who she was raising as a single mom while working on her PhD in Biochemistry. We were married in 2006 and in 2008 she defended her dissertation while 8 months pregnant with our second daughter, Julia.
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When I heard (or really, listened) to the call to ministry, I looked into all the traditional UU seminaries, and ultimately we headed out to Berkeley, CA where I attended Starr King School for the Ministry, before an internship year at All Souls Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From there we moved to Denver, where Emily was offered a tenure track position in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she is today an Associate Professor.
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Our first year in Denver Metro I served as the half-time contract minister at the UU Church of Greeley, before taking the hire-to-call position of second minister at Jefferson Unitarian. Our youngest daughter, Maia, was born in my first year at JUC.
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In 2022 I was blessed to be called to be the Senior Minster at the First Universalist Church of Denver.
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In our spare time we do many things as a family, including hiking in the mountains, swimming with our neighborhood club team, baking, and a variety of updates and repairs to our 1937 home in east Denver.
