Creating an "About" page is always a bit of a problem (at least it is for me). When I visit such pages I usually find less than I'm looking for, but then I am particularly interested in life stories, so perhaps I'm an outlier. I know this sketch is longer than most and so it is fine with me if you don't want to slog through all of it.
Heritage: I was born in Logan, Utah, but grew up in California. I am a descendant, on most of my ancestral lines, from Mormon pioneers. My ancestors sprang from diverse roots, having immigrated from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, and France. My father was a civil engineer and my mother taught school when she was a young woman. I was their first child; I have five younger sisters.
College, Mission and Marriage: I received a BA degree from Brigham Young University, majoring in Political Science. Between my freshman and sophomore years I served for two and a half years as a Mormon missionary in Norway. I was particularly excited to be called to serve there because my paternal great-great-grandfather had immigrated from Norway in 1838. After he arrived in America his name was Anglicized; born as Thore Torstensen, he became Tora Thurston.
I returned from my mission a more motivated student. A few months after returning from Norway I met and fell in love with a beautiful nineteen-year-old named Dawn Parrett, and we were married a year later. It proved to be one of the best decisions of my life; we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in 2016.
Law School, Family, Legal Practice: During my senior year at BYU I managed to convince Harvard Law School to accept me and give me partial financial aid. Three years later, after Dawn had given birth to our first child and I had received my juris doctor, we left Cambridge for Southern California, where I joined the law firm of Latham & Watkins. Dawn, who had interrupted her schooling to support me through law school, enrolled in UCLA and received her BA in English. Over the first fourteen years of our marriage we had six children, two of whom died as infants.
I practiced law for thirty-five years at Latham & Watkins, most of the time as a partner in the firm. It became, and still is, one of the world's largest and most prestigious law firms. Eventually, I specialized in copyright and trademark law.
Life Story Writing: In 1996, while still practicing law full time, I published my first book, Tora Thurston: The History of a Norwegian Pioneer. About that same time, Dawn, who had gone back to school to get her masters degree, began teaching life story writing at Rancho Santiago College in Orange. Eventually both of us lectured at venues around the country on how to write a compelling life story. Over the years Dawn has become a nationally known lecturer on life story writing. Not long after my book on Tora Thurston was published, my father gave me a 150-page handwritten draft of his life story. He asked if I would help him finish it, and I enthusiastically agreed. After much back and forth, filling out the details and smoothing the writing, I published Long Trail Winding: The Personal History of Morris Alma Thurston. It is a great example of a life story of an ordinary man, made even more interesting in the telling.
In 2007 Dawn and I collaborated to write the book Breathe Life into Your Life Story: How to Write a Story People Will Want to Read, which has become a Signature Books bestseller. It has been greatly satisfying to hear how many people have found the book helpful as they write their own life stories. In about 2008 I undertook to edit a collection of letters, originally written for publication in the Logan (Utah) Tri-Weekly Journal, by another ancestor during his 1906-09 missionary service in Australia. In 2014, I published the resulting book, titled News from the Antipodes: The Australian Letters of William Griffiths Reese.
Mormon Legal History: Following my retirement from Latham & Watkins, I worked on the Joseph Smith Papers project as a consultant for a planned legal series. This led to a stint as an adjunct assistant professor at BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School from 2006-08, where I lectured on Joseph Smith and the law. I have also presented lectures on Mormon historical legal issues in classes or conferences sponsored by Utah State University, the Mormon History Association, the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research, and Sunstone. My BYU Studies article titled “The Boggs Shooting and Attempted Extradition: Joseph Smith’s Most Famous Case,” received an Award of Excellence from the Mormon History Association in 2010.
Board Service: I am a member of the board of directors of Dialogue Foundation, publisher of Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought, serving as its Chair in 2013, and I also host the Dialogue Journal podcasts. Dawn and I are members of the board of directors of the Miller Eccles Study Group, a Southern California-based nonprofit organization that brings scholars from around the country to lecture on topics of interest to Mormons. We have hosted those lectures in our home for most of the last 14 years.
LGBT Issues: In 2008, the LDS Church urged its California members to support Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution that would foreclose the possibility of same-sex marriage. I felt, as a matter of conscience, that I could not support a law that would limit the rights of others in such a way. Moreover, much of the literature being distributed by the proponents of Prop 8 was either false or misleading. I became active in trying to set the record straight, particularly when they involved legal issues. I felt that it was in the best interest of my church not to give currency to such misinformation. I was also concerned about how the campaign would affect our gay brothers and sisters, many of whom already felt they were being pushed out of the Church.
Although Prop 8 passed at the ballot box, when it was challenged in court, its supporters were unable to produce evidence to support the claims made in the campaign, and the amendment was eventually invalidated. I have spoken concerning legal issues involving same-sex marriage as a guest on several radio programs and podcasts, at Utah State University, Utah Valley University and Harvard University. This is still a controversial issue and I recognize that many of my friends and extended family members have a different perspective than I do. I hope we can continue to be friends, notwithstanding our differences, something our church leaders encourage. I believe that in time we will see a sensible resolution of these issues, much the same as we have seen happen with other problem issues in LDS history.
Photography and Book Design: Ever since I was a nineteen-year-old missionary in Norway I have been interested in photography. I have no drawing skills, so it serves as an outlet for my artistic side. After my retirement as a lawyer in 2006, I pursued photography more seriously. I am not a professional, but my camera brings me great joy and it makes traveling even more fun. I enjoy shooting beautiful landscapes and architecture, but I also like candid and formal portraiture, particularly when it involves my family. I also appreciate good book design and have found a creative outlet in developing the layouts for all of my published books. In my spare time I like to create photo books.
Dawn and I have resided in Villa Park, Orange County, California since 1977, raising our four children there. We continue to derive great joy from our association with them and our five grandchildren.
-- Morris Ashcroft Thurston