Huntsman gives largest gift
Jon M. Huntsman Sr.’s $26 million donation to the university was announced at a luncheon Monday.
The gift will go mainly to the College of Business, with $1 million going toward scholarships. Waiting for the amount to be announced was like Christmas morning, said Douglas Anderson, dean of the College of Business. This is the largest donation the school as received to date, Anderson said.
USU President Stan Albrecht announced the amount of the donation just moments before Huntsman spoke, and the audience gave a standing ovation upon hearing the amount. The College of Business will be renamed the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business in honor of its benefactor, a gesture Huntsman didn’t ask for, Anderson and Albrecht said. It would’ve been easier to slip the check under the door and run, Huntsman said, noting the entire event was humbling.
Gathered at the luncheon were prominent Utah and national figures such as Huntsman and his wife Karen, Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Tom Gerrity, former dean at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where Huntsman received his business degree. Students also gathered in the Sunburst Lounge to watch a live video feed of the events. Huntsman acknowledged and waved to the students as he addressed those in attendance.
Encouraging those in charge to look at the students when deciding how to best use the money was a key point of Packer’s speech. He reminded Anderson and Albrecht that people don’t say, “Ready, fire, aim,” but that it goes the other way, with aiming being well before firing. There are students on the other end trying to get through school and life, and they need to be remembered, Packer said.
“Always remember the fact that a student is something,” Packer said.
Gov. Huntsman said this gift will not only help student programs, but give them a role model to look at in his father. He said he has seen how ethics have become a big part of the business world but have always been something his dad has had.
An alumnus of Wharton, Huntsman Sr. has been serving on boards at the school for more than 20 years and has helped fund the business program there. USU will become partners with this school to share ideas and take ideas from what the school has already done. Gerrity said he is grateful for all the Huntsmans have done for their school.
“I am excited for you to not just have Jon Huntsman’s fortune behind you, but to have the man Jon Huntsman behind you,” Gerrity said.
Huntsman has a history of working in the business industry, having spent 27 years with his company Huntsman Corp. His work is global, and this is one of the areas the gift will focus on. Others include ethics and strengthening interests in financial and quantitative analysis, Anderson said.
Since his wife Karen has known him, she said Huntsman has been a giving person. As student body president his senior year in high school, Huntsman recognized the custodians for all they did, Karen said, and it brought the janitors to tears. When they were first married, he was giving money to a family he thought needed it each month, she said.
“Jon knew the value of giving back, making a difference in people’s lives no matter how much he had,” Karen said.
Huntsman thanked all those involved with the donation process and said he and his wife have been looking forward to this day for a while. They are grateful to be associated with one of the highest universities in the nation, Huntsman said. Having been in the business world for a while after starting out on a farm in Idaho, Huntsman said he hopes to continue to help those students coming from farms to study entrepreneurship and small businesses. No man is an island, he said, noting that a respect for human dignity should be part of every person and something students embrace.
“At the end of the day, our character along with our charity will determine our destiny,” he said.
As a thank-you gift to the Huntsmans, Anderson and Albrecht presented them with the painting, “The Harvest Panel,” by Craig Law, a professor in the arts department.
Monday will be a day long remembered as the beginning of a relationship that will go on for many generations, Anderson said.
-alison.baugh@aggiemail.usu.edu