Rev. Alspaugh to be installed Sunday at First Unitarian

YOUNGSTOWN — The congregation of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown has announced the appointment of Rev. Matt Alspaugh as its new minister. An installation service will take place at 11 a.m. Sunday at the church, 1105 Elm St.

The Rev. Mr. Alspaugh was recently ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister at his home congregation, Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Col. In 2008, he completed his master of divinity studies at Starr King School, the Unitarian Universalist seminary in Berkeley, Calif.

Last year, Mr. Alspaugh served as a chaplain resident at United Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. Before that, he was the parish ministerial intern at Unity Church, Unitarian, also in St. Paul.

Before Mr. Alspaugh entered the ministry, he was a lay leader in several UU churches, most recently at Jefferson Unitarian in Golden, which is recognized as one of the fastest-growing churches in the UU movement. The church’s senior minister, the Rev. Peter Morales, was elected president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in June of this year.

In his previous career, Mr. Alspaugh worked in product and marketing management in a number of high technology startup firms in Colorado, and taught telecommunications at the University of Denver.

He also worked as a systems engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey. He has a master of science in electrical engineering from Purdue University and a master’s in business administration from University of Denver.