Our Vestry

Dave Kinnear, Sr. Warden
dkinnear@gmail.com
262-853-0868
Leadership Committee

I moved to Steamboat Springs in the summer of 2017, after a 34-yr career with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, to pursue an active retirement. My wife, Cindy, and I were delighted to find a warm welcome at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. I have gotten involved in several ministries here at St. Paul’s, in addition to my work on the Vestry. I have also participated in various aspects of the discernment process and am delighted at the progress that we have made as a congregation. I have served in church leadership of several congregations before moving to Steamboat Springs and have also been a part of small group ministries and partnerships with other congregations. I enjoy biking, hiking, skiing, photography and any other outdoor activity.

Bruce Givnish, Jr. Warden
bgivnish@jkj.com
Vestry member beg 2023

I was born and raised in Philadelphia area, attended parochial school, a Christian Brothers high school, and then Penn State. I was an architecture student for one year, until I figured out that I would starve in that profession, and switched to accounting . . . so exciting! I’ve had three different careers, all with a common thread of being a professional sales person – importer of floral supplies, Xerox Corporation, and a partner in a large regional insurance brokerage.

I met Karen my last week of my senior year of college and was totally in love. We got married two years later in her Episcopal Church outside of Philadelphia – the Church of the Messiah. We raised two terrific children who are now adults, each married and each has one child. They all live in Steamboat. Yes, two grandchildren in Steamboat! That certainly made the decision to move to this amazing valley pretty simple. We built a house on the way to Fish Creek Falls and have been here since last December.

My spiritual journey made a hard turn when I was introduced to the episcopal church. Everything made much more sense to me. One aspect of our faith tradition is the welcoming for all to receive communion. I was raised in a tradition to put up restrictions and barriers to receiving communion. This made a deep impression on me at age 24 and still today.

We were quickly incorporated into the Messiah community – Teen Youth Group leaders, Usher, Reader and Stewardship Committee. Our children were baptized and confirmed, attended youth programs, and participated in mission trips. I served on the Vestry two different times and was a Rector’s Warden for nine years, supporting two rectors as well as an interim rector during a search. Karen was equally active including multiple Vestry terms. Our move to Colorado mean saying goodbye to the Messiah community and very dear friends. We are now loving the Yampa Valley and St. Paul’s has been especially welcoming! As a Vestry member at Saint Paul’s, I will bring my faith, energy, passion and experience to help the parish continue to grow and thrive as a Christ – centered community.

I have been a rolling stone before my husband Eric and I retired to Steamboat. Some of my previous activities include: I studied Asian history and politics. in college and graduate school. I have lived in Japan and Taiwan as part of my studies. I moved to Washington DC where I worked at the Library of Congress in research in Asian politics.

I met Eric on a backpacking trip in DC and we soon moved to Aurora CO. Our children were born in Aurora and I changed my studies to accounting to have a more functional skill. Eric’s job took us back East to Long Island. We had a comfortable life on Long Island but I always wanted to return to Colorado.

While we lived on Long Island I specialized in tax accounting and I discovered that I love it. I still work part time as I discovered I fail at retirement each time I try. Also, on Long Island I became active in Trinity Episcopal church after many years of spiritual drifting. Trinity was also a very welcoming church and set the stage for me to come to St Paul’s as soon as we moved to Steamboat.

God Bless from a rolling stone!

The whole family quickly fell in love with Steamboat Springs and the sense of community.  Feeling comfortable that the boys were settled and happy, I took a job with the Yampa Valley Medical Center Foundation for several years and was excited to be a part of supporting the health care services available to the community. With Henry now entering middle school, however, I decided it was a good time to take a step back and be a full time mom for a while.

I grew up in the Catholic church but when Kiva and I decided to get married in Manchester Vt. there happened to be a small Episcopal Chapel right across the street from our resort. While there, we attended a mass and were amazed at how open and welcoming everyone was even though we were just visitors. After meeting with the priest, we decided, the Episcopalian Church was the right fit for us and we were married in St. Johns Chapel with the boys being baptized at St. Johns Cathedral in Denver.  When we moved to Steamboat, I attended St. Paul’s and was so happy to find the same openness and welcome that had first drew me in.

In my free time, I enjoy hiking, skiing, reading and anything to tire out our 1 year old Labrador puppy. Kiva and I love trying new wines and as a family, we love doing anything together (even if it takes some convincing!).  

I grew up in Texas, graduating from nursing school in 1982. Professionally, I've always worked in the neonatal ICU, first as a staff nurse and later as a nurse practitioner. I did take a hiatus from nursing in the late 1980s and worked in full time youth ministry in Germany for 3 years, but I missed the babies too much and returned to nursing in 1991. I received my advanced degree in nursing in 1994. I worked as a practitioner first in Dallas, then here in Steamboat until the summer of 2019 when I retired.

I was raised in the Methodist church, and committed my life to Christ as a teenager. I have attended many different denominations and grown spiritually in different ways from all of them, but I really feel I have found my home at St. Paul’s, where I see the good news, that God is love, lived out with sincerity, authenticity and commitment.

I am very proud of being an Episcopalian and being a member of St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s has an amazing Congregation and Staff, Rector Clergy, and Vestry and I love everyone at St. Paul’s.

As I work my way towards retirement, I am hoping to give more of my time to St. Paul’s and my family at St. Paul’s. I think we are in a great place at St. Paul’s now. I am looking forward to my retirement and becoming more involved wherever I can be of most help.

I have been working for the Routt County Road & Bridge Department here in Steamboat for almost 42 years. I like most all outdoor activities, camping, hiking, mountain bike riding, fishing, snowshoeing and skiing.

Here at St. Paul’s, I’ve been privileged to serve as a lector and choir member, participate as a guest at Daughters of the King, serve as the interim music director, and help bring on board our current music minister and assist him and the children’s minister with the children’s choir.

I believe strongly in lifelong Christian discipleship and fellowship, and would love to see St. Paul’s build on the good work recently begun by our children’s minister so that we provide a spiritual home base for the whole family, with faith formation grounded in the Episcopal tradition for all ages and stages and designed also to meet the requirements of the Safe Church program. The people of St. Paul’s have so much to offer, and I look forward to serving in whatever way I may be called. In the midst of all that, let’s go skiing, hiking or fishing together, talk about books we’ve read, and share a cup of tea and some joyful meals - all things I love to do with family and friends!

Jim Ferguson
jjfergus@swbell.net

Alisa and I fell in love with Steamboat Springs 30 years ago when we started visiting for annual ski vacations with her Oklahoma-based family. We began to attend St. Paul’s as part-time residents in 2012. We have been more-time residents since I retired in March 2023.

Growing up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in Virginia, my family attended an active Southern Baptist church, where the youth choirs and ministry were an important part of my life. My mother made sure that my brother and I prepared for Sunday school each Saturday night by quizzing us on the next day’s lessons. I began attending 8:00 am services in the Episcopal church when I started dating Alisa Hurley while in law school in Virginia.

We started our family while living in northern Virginia, where Alisa practiced. I worked as a tax lawyer in the Washington, DC, office of a Wall Street firm. Daughters Katie and Abby were both born and baptized in the Episcopal church there. We thought we would never leave. Shortly after I joined my client, Mobil Corporation, as an executive and in-house counsel, they merged with Exxon and we moved to Houston, where we were active at St. John the Divine. I was confirmed there. As oil and gas executives tend to be somewhat itinerant, we moved our family to Dallas, where we attended St. Michael and All Angels. We then moved back to Houston and attended Palmer Memorial.

After retiring last year as a senior financial executive and tax counsel at ExxonMobil, Alisa and I (and our daughters, now in Washington, DC, and Chicago), agreed that Steamboat Springs will always be an anchor for our family. St. Paul’s has been open and welcoming to us since we started attending only a few weeks a year more than a decade ago. We believe in St. Paul’s mission and ministries, and particularly activities that include the whole Steamboat Springs community.

We recently decided to move our membership from Palmer Episcopal in Houston to St. Paul’s. Alisa and I look forward to more opportunities to serve this church and its community.