Malin L. Jacobs
Centennial, CO

While Brother Jacobs is a lifelong member of the church who has also defended it for many years, there was a time during his early college education when he was inactive and considered the church irrelevant and probably not true.  With the help of a devoted home teacher, he finally got his head screwed on right again and started attending church.

Brother Jacobs is a high priest and currently serves as the ward church magazine representative.  In the past he has served as gospel doctrine instructor, counselor in the ward Sunday School presidency, Sunday School president, primary teacher, cubmaster, elders quorum executive secretary, ward membership clerk, ward organist, priesthood organist, and choir accompanist.

Brother Jacobs has been paying attention to anti-Mormons and their writings for thirty years.  In addition to his familiarity with the standard pro- and anti-Mormon writings, he has read extensively in the historical literature of both camps (some 200+ works altogether).  On four occasions he has defended the church as a radio talk show guest, twice in Salt Lake City, Utah and twice in Denver, Colorado.

At one time he considered himself an "intellectual" church member, but that term has since been appropriated by a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals who think it their duty to remove the scriptural foundation from the church by promoting the notion that the Book of Mormon is simply faith-promoting fiction, not to be confused with real history.  Many of them also wish to reform the church from within to promote feminism and the acceptance of homosexual behavior.

Professionally, Mr. Jacobs is a retired electrical engineer.  He holds both BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Denver.  He was doing preparatory work for the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering when his oldest son (Stephen) graduated from high school and started college.  Financially, it was not feasible for him to adequately support his wife and five children and at the same time pay graduate college expenses for himself and undergraduate expenses for Stephen.  Since he deemed it less important that he complete a Ph.D. than that his son complete an undergraduate degree, he discontinued school.  (Stephen has a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering and writes software with which to test cell phones.)  The following circumstances make it unlikely that Mr. Jacobs will complete a Ph.D.:

a.  Support of his middle son (Todd) on a mission and college.  Between Fall of 2001 and Spring of 2007 Todd served in the Korea, Pusan mission and graduated suma cum laude from Arizona State University (ASU) with a BMus in Trombone Performance.  For the 2006-2007 season he was Principal Trombone with the Mesa Symphony (a paid position, but just barely).  He is presently (Spring 2009) a graduate student at Brigham Young University (BYU), working on a MMus in trombone performance.  In August, 2007 Todd was appointed Principal Trombone for the Orchestra at Temple Square (a volunteer position, but looks great on a resumé).

b.  Support of his youngest son, Scott, for college and his service in the Russian, Moscow mission.  Scott is presently a junior at BYU, double majoring in Russian and Business, with a minor in music.  His instrument is trumpet, and he has done some composing and arranging for The Orion Winds, a Denver-based double woodwind quintet.

c.  His retired status.

Of course, Mr. Jacobs could obtain a Ph.D the way some anti-Mormons got theirs (D.J. Nelson and Walter Martin come to mind) -- by buying it from some fly-by-night, send-your-money, little-or-no-study-required, maybe-write-some-kind-of report-we’ll-call-a-thesis, non-accredited diploma mill.  However, he is unlikely to pursue such a shameful course.

Prior to his retirement his professional areas of expertise are Power Systems (with emphasis on Harmonics), Electronics, Magnetics, and Control Systems.  He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Mr. Jacobs has published seven papers in peer-reviewed technical journals, as well as authoring numerous technical reports for his former employer, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), which is part of the federal government Department of the Interior.  He holds five patents.

For over 25 years Mr. Jacobs has taught classes and/or lectured for the University of Colorado at Denver Electrical Engineering (EE) department, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Western Area Power Administration’s (Western) Electric Power Training Center.  He served on the IEEE working group of the Materials Subcommittee of the Electric Machinery Committee, which prepared IEEE Standard 95-2002™, IEEE Recommended Practice for Insulation Testing of AC Electric Machinery (2300 V and Above) with High Direct Voltage.

In addition, he has produced several dozen in-house technical reports dealing with equipment he designed, research he performed, and field tests he conducted as part of his employment.  He has peer-reviewed technical papers for journal publication and a chapter for a book on large wind-turbine electric power generators.  He wrote ten chapters of a Reclamation training course, Principles of Hydroelectric Power, including those on Magnetic Circuits, Capacitive Circuits, Single-Phase AC Circuits, 3-Phase AC Circuits, Direct Current Machinery, AC Motors, AC Generators, Electrical Instrumentation, Electrical Test Equipment, and Personal Protective Grounding.  He is also writing Arc Flash Hazard Analysis reports for individual Reclamation facilities.

He is also a member of the Planetary Society, the National Space Society, and the Creation Research Society.

Malin's hobbies have included photography, astronomy, model aircraft building, and electronic kit building.  Presently he is an avid amateur philatelist and a member of the American Philatelic Society (APS number 171725), specializing in U.S. and related areas, such as the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) and the post-WWII Allied Military Government (A.M.G.) categories.  He is a voracious reader, and in addition to history and apologetics, enjoys good science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries.

Malin is married, has five children, and eleven grandchildren.  His wife, Carole, is into genealogy in a big way.  She serves at one of the LDS Family History Centers and for many years has used the Internet for genealogical research on her own and husband’s lines.  She has taught the Family History class in Sunday School, and has been the ward primary chorister.  In addition she is a violinist and currently plays with the Aurora Symphony.  In the past she has played with the Westminster and Jefferson Symphonies.

Malin regards himself as an all-around near-genius and one of the good guys.  If he has a flaw, it is his low tolerance for stupidity, especially the educated variety.