American Dynasty

                           Does your kitchen look like this on Thanksgiving Day?           I'm hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Our family's Feastorama was held at my niece's home in Highland.  Around 65 family members attended. The upmarket family members were dressed in their fineries as if they were eating at a nice restaurant.  The more practical of us (those who don't care what anyone thinks) came in our finest sweatpants with  elastic stretchable waistbands. We never know what the little'uns are up to at these gatherings. The adults are too busy with their faces buried in the feeding trough              At family gatherings like this, our family's table discussions can turn heated. We have a broad range of political affiliations in our family, especially between the older and younger generations...

Alex DeBirk as Motel      Alex DeBirk is the physics teacher at American Heritage School in American Fork and the director of school's Discovery Space Center with the starships Discovery and Galileo.  In his very limited spare time, Alex plays many roles in local musical productions.        Alex has just announced that he has landed the role of Motel in The Fiddle on the Roof at the Hale Center Theater in Sandy.  This is fantastic news, especially because my entire sixth grade (all 90 of us) will be seeing Fiddle on the Roof in March as part of the HCT's school field trip program.  We will make sure Alex gets the loudest applause and even a standing ovation!      Alex started his space center career as a young high school volunteer at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center.  He graduated from Lone Peak, went on an LDS mission to Japan, graduated with a master's degree in engineering from Stanford, and has c...

On November 8, 1990, ago the Space Center opened its doors to the world with a massive open house and dedication program.   Hundreds of people attended. The lines to tour the Starship Voyager stretched all the way down the hallway of Central School.  We filled the school's gym for the program. Our guest speaker was Senator Jake Garn, Utah's Senator who went into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.   Fast forward thirty-three years to today.  Writing as the founder, I want to say thank you to the many hundreds of staff and volunteers who've worked hard over the decades to make the Space Center what it is today; and thank you to the hundreds of thousands of people who've attended a Space Center field trip, camp, private mission, class, etc. for your support. My inspiration to build the first starship Voyager at Central School in 1989-1990 was rooted in the classroom starship I operated from 1983-1990. The classroom simulator was simple; student ...

Silver and his Long Time Space Center Friends on his Final Day Scott, Silver, Jon, and Hyrum      Silver Perry, long time volunteer and member of the Space Center's staff, retired from active duty after his final mission "Whispers," Saturday, October 28.  It was a good mission to retire on. He leaves his position as Phoenix Set Director and with it a long legacy of innovations for a simulator he was devoted to.   Silver as a young member of the Voyager Club             Silver's time at the CMSC started when he was in junior high school. He was one of my Farpoint Cadets for our Voyager Club's Long Duration Mission Program. You see him in the photo on the left with his squadron on a cold Saturday morning.  He started volunteering at the Space Center around the same time.  Silver and his watches. He was our very own Time Lord         Silver had a thing for watches back then. I never knew wha...