Rev. Dr. Desi Larson
Pastor Desi holds a BA degree in English and Visual Arts from Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania and a Master of Divinity from Boston University in Massachusetts. Being a life-long learner, Pastor Desi also received MS and Ph.D. degrees in Adult Education from Cornell University in New York.
Desi was commissioned as Provisional Member of the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2007 and then was ordained as Full Member in 2011. In 2019, she transferred her membership to the Oregon-Idaho Conference. There, she served as pastor of Ashton Community United Methodist Church in Ashton, Idaho. Prior to this, she served as pastor of several of our churches in Maine, namely Readfield, Brackett Memorial, and Merriland Ridge United Methodist Churches. Rev. Larson came to Trinity in July 2022.
Marian Needham
Office Manager/Bookkeeper
Marian brings to her position a diverse background including a degree in graphic arts, followed by years in that occupation, vocational teaching, and several years in various office management positions.
Marian also is the Administrative Assistant at the Sequim Free Clinic. She has lived in Sequim since 1994. A Washington native, Marian enjoys the outdoors, hiking, and gardening, and considers herself blessed to be living in such a beautiful part of the state. She has a son who served in the Air Force and is working in Software Development.
Marian enjoys the opportunity to greet visitors to TUMC weekdays, welcomes the challenges that go with being an office manager, and acknowledges that her job could not be done without the help of wonderful volunteers.
Donna Grubbs
Music Director
In addition to her Music Director responsibilities, Donna is also one of our pianists. As Musical Director, she works with a very talented and caring staff planning the music for the worship services. In short, she helps to “pull things together and tie up loose ends.” As pianist, she plays the piano for worship services, accompanying Trinity Singers, soloists, and other instrumentalists.
Growing up in Missouri, Donna remembers always being surrounded by music. Her earliest memory of enjoying music began as she listened to her father, grandfather, and uncle play the piano, fiddle, and guitar in a one-room schoolhouse while neighbors square danced. Her first choir experience was being a member of a Junior Choir in the Methodist Church. There were many years of piano lessons throughout elementary and high school, and she studied the pipe organ in college. Donna graduated from the University of Alabama with a major in Home Economics and a minor in Music.
Although Sequim has been their retirement home for the past nine years, Donna and her husband, Randy, previously spent thirty years in Panama as DoDDS teachers and six years in Okinawa, Japan, where Donna taught Home Economics (now called Family & Consumer Science) and elementary school music. All these unique places provided musical experiences, where she served as organist and pianist for many churches; director of children’s choirs; and accompanist for high school choirs; community choirs, and community theater productions.
Rev. Dr. Jerome Wright
Choir Director
Jerry is a local boy. Born and raised in the Everett/Mukilteo area, he excelled in music at an early age. His first public performance was on his mother’s local radio program, where, at the age of five, he sang “White Christmas.” Jerry received most of his musical education at the University of Washington.
He thought he was going to be a high school band and orchestra director; however, his first job – at Mount Vernon High School – had one period of junior band and five periods of choir. He conducted his first adult church choir at the age of sixteen.
An Episcopalian, Jerry has served as a choral conductor in his own denomination as well as Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Disciples of Christ parishes. His last church choir position, prior to his position at Trinity, was as Minister of Music at the University Christian Church in Seattle. While at University Christian Church, he conducted all the Seattle performances of “Missa Gaia” (Earth Mass) with his church choir, the Seattle Oratorio Society (that he founded), and the Paul Winter Consort.
He has studied in master classes with some of the world’s finest choral conductors. For the last twenty-eight years of his official career, he was the Founder and Artistic Director of the renowned Seattle Girls’ Choir (SGC). He toured with the SGC to numerous foreign countries, and won first-prize awards in three international choral competitions.
But wait, there’s more! While at University Christian Church, he discovered a theological school just down the block, and started studying there. One thing led to another, and he was ordained in 1984 with a Doctor of Divinity degree. He is interested in the inner, spiritual aspects of making music, and this education has transformed his musical art in powerful ways. He is reorganizing the Olympic Girls’ Choir in Sequim that he founded in 1998.
Jerry was married to Suzann Worley (also a choral director) and has five children, eight grandchildren, and sixteen great-grandchildren.
Pauline Olsen
Organist
In addition to being the organist, Pauline is also our second pianist. She enjoys collaborating with the music team to plan music for Sunday worship services and special events.
During Lent 2014, she presented seven one-hour organ concerts of traditional and contemporary music, inviting guest musicians and soloists to participate.
Pauline grew up in a parsonage and was tutored by several church organists. She studied pipe organ at Capital University Conservatory of Music, Columbus, Ohio.
Sequim has been Pauline’s home for over twenty years. She and her husband, Walter, moved here after she retired as a Professor of Nursing at Peninsula College, Port Angeles. Walter was an Irish tenor who sang professionally, and Pauline accompanied him on piano and organ. After his death in 2011, Pauline accepted the position of organist at TUMC.
Lois’ Legacy, an exciting TUMC ministry (now in its 10th year!), is named for Pauline’s sister. Lois, who moved to Sequim so Pauline could provide in-home care for her, passed away in December 2012. The mission of Lois' Legacy is to promote self-directed choices for everyone in need of care. See the mission page for more information about Lois’ Legacy.
Rhonda J. Heyn
Director of Tim’s Place
Tim’s Place is TUMC's respite ministry serving those in the Sequim community facing memory care challenges.
Rhonda was born and raised in Barrington, Illinois, and studied history at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita CA, where she met her husband, Daniel. Their daughter, Natalie, was born in 2004.
Rhonda loves spending time with her family, traveling, and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors.
Rhonda gave up her career pursuit to become a caregiver for family members who needed in-home care, and she fell in love with the long-term care profession. She moved with her family to Sequim in 2013 and continued with her caregiving passion. In 2018, she was invited to help create a ministry to meet the needs of the many people in our community who live with memory loss, and the needs of their caregivers who need respite. Tim’s Place Ministry is expanding, and Rhonda is very excited to see how the Good Lord and TUMC can expand this ministry to serve as many in need as possible.
Lawrence Charters
Sight and Sound Coordinator.
Lawrence manages TUMC's Sight and Sound team, its website, and Internet services.
Lawrence is a retired Internet Projects Manager for NOAA’s National Ocean Service, where he built and managed websites that produced tides and current information, maintained the geospatial reference model that runs GPS systems, published nautical charts and information on the nation’s National Marine Sanctuaries, and dozens of other topics.
He has also been a newspaper editor, magazine editor, photojournalist, college instructor, bookseller, and library technician. He is fond of penguins and puffins 🐧.
With degrees in Far East Asian history, he has edited a newspaper and two journals, worked as a librarian, managed a bookstore, and taught college courses in History, Political Science, Philosophy, English Literature, and Computer Science. He is currently working on several writing and photography projects.