As a lifelong Episcopalian, my first memories of church were first communion and confirmation at St. Francis in San Francisco with Bishop Swing. I was active in UC Berkeley Canterbury and joined St. Mark’s in 1990 after graduation and beginning work at Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto. Currently I work at Nuance Communications (a Microsoft subsidiary) as a speech systems support engineer.
Lilly and I were married at St. Mark’s in 1999, and all three of our children were also baptized, by Father Matt. Isabel and Michael are now in college, happily both in California, and Michael planted native plants around the St. Mark’s parking lot for his Eagle Scout project, while Anabel has a couple more years of high school to go. I’ve served previously on the Vestry 1995-98 and 2015-18, and currently on Finance Commission, 564 Colorado Corporation, and Wednesday noonday prayer Zoom leader. Over the years, I’ve dabbled in many other areas in St. Mark’s community life, such as young adults fellowship in the 1990s, stewardship, children and families, teen youth group, confirmation mentor twice, lay eucharistic visitor, and reader.
St. Mark’s has truly been my spiritual and centering home for over three decades, and as a Vestry member, I hope to help St. Mark’s sustain the vibrant and loving community we cherish, by strengthening our excellent financial foundations even further, and by looking for ways to engage more of our new or less active members to increase participation and hopefully grow into leadership roles as part of a wonderful journey.