The Timpanogos Club

We are very pleased to have Marshall McDonald as our guest speaker in September.  Marshall has developed a unique musical style that combines classical, inspirational, film score, and new age genres of music all in one. He has recorded multiple albums. His film scores and symphonies have been performed and recorded across the globe. He has been a guest soloist with the Tabernacle Choir on its weekly broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word and has scored several social media campaigns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Most recently, he was honored by Utah Governor Spencer Cox and First Lady Abby Cox as recipient of the 2024 Governor’s Mansion Artist Award. He currently teaches at the University of Utah Institute of Religion and serves as the Music Coordinator for Seminaries and Institutes for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We look forward to seeing all of you once again as we begin another wonderful year of Timpanogos Club gatherings!

Please join us on Thursday, April 25th to learn about the current state of the court systems in the United States. We will be privileged to hear from the Honorable Paul Maughan, a current Timpanogos Club member. Judge Maughan received his Juris Doctor Law Degree from the University of Utah in 1974. He served as a state trial judge for eighteen years, presided over major civil cases, both jury and bench trials and also had an extensive felony criminal calendar. He is a former Assistant District Attorney for Salt Lake County, Assistant Salt Lake City Attorney, a Special Assistant Attorney for the State’s Attorney General and is an associate in the law firm of Bradley, Arrowsmith and Jackson.

Judge Maughan served as a Master of the Bench of the Aldon Anderson Inn of Court, a Member of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct, a member of the Utah Sentencing Commission, the Chair of the State of Utah Career Review Board, and Vice-Chair of the Litigation Section of the Utah State Bar.

Our speaker for this month’s club meeting will be Rabbi Samuel L. Spector, who will address us about the Jewish experience in Salt Lake City and Utah and how the current affairs in the world are affecting his congregation. He has been the rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami since 2018. He attended the University of California, San Diego, graduated with Cum Laude honors with a B.A. in Judaic Studies and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Masters in Hebrew Letters and Rabbinic Ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. He is currently a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and serves on the advisory board for the Salt Lake Chamber and the Christian Center of Park City.

Rabbi Spector is married to Jill, an ldaho native; they are proud parents of their daughters, Miriam and Esti, and host parents of Yasamin, a high school student from Afghanistan.

We look forward to enjoying a fine evening together, and hearing from Rabbi Spector on this occasion.

Our speaker for this month’s meeting will be Martin Frey, the first person in history to climb the tallest peak on each of the seven continents, sail across all of the planet’s seven seas, ski to both the North Pole and the South Pole and circumnavigate the globe. The evening  promises to be a real high point.  Please join us for this exciting (Mount) Timpanogos Club meeting!

On Thursday, November 30^th, Dr. Vivek Srikumar will enlighten our understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with an environment, problem solving, and even exercising creativity. Because of the power of AI and the changes it will bring, it’s crucial that we get a grasp of what it is and is not.  Dr. Srikumar is an associate professor in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah. He co-leads the Utah Natural Language Processing Group and has dedicated research of AI.

On Thursday, October 26^th, Jim Jardine, one of our own club members, will teach us about C. S. Lewis, one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. Jim taught an Honors English Class at the University of Utah on C. S. Lewis, so he is very well suited to discuss this great author.  We are very fortunate–Jim is one of Utah’s Legal Elites.  He graduated cum laude from Harvard University, J.D., and was recognized as Outstanding Lawyer of the Year, Federal Bar Association, Utah Chapter, 2006 and Distinguished Lawyer of the Year, Utah State Bar, 2005. We’re honored to be instructed by such an accomplished individual.  Please join us for this outstanding evening.

On Thursday, September 7^th, Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez will address us. Dr. Tuminez is the president of Utah’s largest school, Utah Valley University. The university has over 43,000 students. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from BYU, a master’s degree in Soviet Studies from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Dr. Tuminez’ education and accomplishments are impressive and even more so when we learn she was born in a Philippine farming village and later moved to the lloilo City slums. Her educational pursuits led her to the United States. She is an author and a former Microsoft executive. She and her husband, Jeffrey S. Tolk, have three children.  We eagerly await her message to us as we begin another wonderful season of Timpanogos Club gatherings,