Kim Thornock

Could there be a greater dichotomy between two environments than a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a state prison complex? Even more so, for someone who calls both settings his workplace?

            This summer while visiting the Houston Texas Temple, I met Kim Thornock of Cleveland, Texas who’s employed there in temple operations. As he explained his role, he mentioned stepping away on Fridays, his day off, to work a part-time job. Curious, I asked about the part-time job and learned he works two days a week at a Texas penitentiary. I knew I had stumbled upon a fascinating story.

Kim spends Mondays through Thursdays, along with Saturdays, as a facilities assistant in the Houston Temple. On Fridays and part of Sundays, he’s a guard at a maximum security prison near Huntsville, Texas.

After graduating from Brigham Young University and working in Utah, Kim moved to Texas managing supply chain issues for Houston Methodist Hospital. He also had responsibility for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and every other system keeping the hospital working.

His broad experience at many more occupations notwithstanding, Kim became

unemployed as COVID shutdowns took their toll. As his job search stretched into

months, he responded to a need for guards by the Texas state prison system and was soon hired.

“I worked as a security guard while attending college many years ago and that was qualification enough for me to consider service with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a correctional officer.”

“Just after beginning training at the state prison academy, I saw an opening in Houston for a position at the temple and I remembered a friend who worked in the Washington, D.C. temple one time mentioning the need for temple facilities managers. An interview was quickly followed by a job offer and, just like that, I found himself with two full-time jobs.

“Obviously, I couldn’t do both full-time, so I prepared my resignation letter from the prison position and was about to submit it when I received a distinct impression that, ‘I need you here’, referring to the prison. I then rather sheepishly approached prison officials about my situation and my preference, and they agreed to continue my prison employment on a part-time basis.

“What I didn’t expect to happen is that I have come to appreciate both opportunities and, in a way I can’t explain, I don’t consider either to be a ‘job’.

“On any given day at the prison, I might be monitoring inmates working in the kitchen, walking among the general prison population, standing guard on death row, watching inmates in the gym during church services, unloading buses bringing prisoners into the facility, and working at the command center. Recently, I spent my shift sitting in front of a locked cell ensuring an inmate didn’t follow through on his threat to commit suicide.

“Through most of the week, I’m laboring in a house of God. I’m walking on what I consider to be holy ground. In using my skill set in the temple, I’m helping the Lord bring people into His holy presence as covenant children are gathered on this side and the other side of the

veil.”