Response Gallery:
By Clint Kelly (ckelly@spu.edu) and Allie Fraley (fralea@spu.edu) | Photos by John Keatley and Fritz Liedtke
The Oyster Brothers
Bill Taylor '80, Vice President
Paul Taylor '81, Secretary/Treasurer,
Taylor Shellfish Farms
More than 120 years ago, our great-grandfather first harvested oysters in south Puget Sound. Today we employ 500 people and are the largest producer of shellfish in North America. We're in Canada and Hong Kong; we have a hatchery in Hawaii and a black pearl farm in Fiji.
Christian values form the foundation of our business philosophy from how we treat our people to how we protect water quality and find new ways to grow shellfish. At the end of the day, it's about faith and family, about relationships with our employees and our consumers. Demand keeps growing, and now fifth-generation Taylors have joined the operation.
At Work
Seven People Immersed in Their Jobs
Americans have the habit of ranking the work they do on a hierarchy of value, assigning importance to some jobs but not others. But Scripture reminds us that all occupations, from agriculture and fishing to medicine and law, have value.
The Apostle Paul urges all workers to do their jobs wholeheartedly as if working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23–24) and exhorts us to find contentment in work for its own sake.
Our work, in the biblical sense, is more than a job. It’s aspirational. It engages us, supports us, and gives a sense of meaning to our existence.
Members of the wider Seattle Pacific University community aspire to engage the culture and change the world through a diverse range of occupations. In their own words, here are seven people who work with purpose whether helping patients through the night or protecting nutrient-rich tidal waters for a bountiful oyster harvest. They believe, as President Theodore Roosevelt discovered, “far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”