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HUNTSMAN GIVES GIFT OF SELF; RE-BRANDS BUSINESS SCHOOL
Topics: business, Education, philanthropy, idaho
Posted by DougAnderson Wed Dec 5, 2007 09:46:58 MST
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Logan, Utah (December 3, 2007) – From my seat in the rear portion of the Stephenson ballroom on the campus of Utah State University, dozens of servers are scurrying about attending to the needs of forty tables filled with guests.  From the far reaches one could barely make out visiting dignitaries; Utah’s Governor, the former Dean of the pre-eminent Business School in the world and a cluster of leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints among them.

 

I see friends and family members, the state Board of Regents, and former faculty with whom I had taken accounting and business law classes.  Yes, I am a USU graduate, and in the interest of full disclosure, completed an internship with the Office of the Vice President of the United States through USUs College of Business. 

 

Years removed from my studies, I watch as a particular industrious server moves from table to table, weaving between attendees, skilled at removing plates and re-filling water glasses.  When to stop?  How far to reach?  Her laundered culinary uniform matching the starched white shirts sprinkled throughout the crowd.  A friendly smile although not given to distraction.  When not engaged in conversation, she stands by, stoically watching, waiting, observing needs and responding. 

 

Enter the couple Governor Huntsman calls “the greatest people (he has) ever known,” his parents, Jon M. and Karen Huntsman. 

 

Following the feeding of the 500, University President Stan Albrecht took the stage, “We are humbled by the confidence placed in us by the Huntsman family as reflected in this generous gift, a gift that will be transforming in its impact on generations of students.”

 

The real recipients represented by the young man seated at the piano, an international student from Armenia, here through the generosity of the Huntsman family, or the server with the tray held high over her head, in much the same fashion that Huntsman is doing with the School of Business.

 

“Fifty years from now people will look back and say December 3, 2007, was the tipping point, a point of inflection in the College of Business,” said Dean Douglas Anderson, after the University President announced the Huntsman family’s $26 million dollar donation to Utah State University. 

 

A standing ovation followed; one million dollars to be dedicated to student scholarships and the balance to elevate the mission of the newly named Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. 

 

“His biggest contribution to us may well be the gift of his name,” said Anderson, Dean since July, 2006.  “Who can quantify the cash value of the Huntsman brand.”

 

“(The) name gives visibility,” said Anderson referring to the Marriott School at Brigham Young and the Eccles School at the University of Utah.

 

It was only fifty years ago that the Agricultural College of Utah became Utah State University and today, there are 93 faculty members teaching 1,857 students.  The main campus in Logan, and its three regional campuses, have a record enrollment this year of 24,241.  Historically, about nine percent of the student body called Idaho home. 

 

Monday’s generosity began 71-years ago in Blackfoot, Idaho, where Huntsman was born.  Raised in Pocatello, as a sixth grader, he and his brother Blaine would mow lawns at neighboring schools.  It was in southeastern Idaho that he learned the value of hard work and of what it meant for a family to struggle.  After a couple years at Pocatello High School, the family moved to California so his father could enter graduate school at Stanford University.

 

In recounting her husband’s time as Student Body President at Palo Alto High School, Karen spoke of the year-end banquet.

 

“He stood at the head of the stage and called forward the custodians.  Recognizing each of them, he presented each a gift.  More important than the ties from JCPenney, were the shared hugs and collective tears.  People matter to Huntsman and making a difference in the lives of those around him has always been a priority.

 

Karen says the father of her nine children was giving from the very beginning.  “Newly married and earning $350 a month, she recalls $50 went missing each month.  He would say it’s going into a special fund instead he was anonymously giving it to a neighbor-in-need down the street.”

 

“The Huntsman name stands for excellence and integrity.  We are proud and grateful to have their name linked with ours,” said Anderson.

 

Timely attributes as the Business School plans to focus the money for student benefit in three major areas: global vision, entrepreneurship and ethical leadership. 

 

Anderson hopes the contribution will “infect our students with a sense of possibility.”

 

“The Huntsman school will help them achieve their potential by developing creativity, leadership abilities, management skills and global vision,” said Albrecht, “while securing in them the ethical mooring that so characterizes our benefactor.”

 

A borderless economy.  A boundless gift.  This genuine and original investment in the future will go a long way in recruiting and retaining faculty and providing opportunity for tomorrow’s business leaders. 

 

“The role of business schools in shaping the future of America’s economy cannot be overstated,” said Governor Huntsman, “ in making this donation, we hope that its programs may be enhanced and that USU, and our state, might be an even greater contributor to the nation’s pool of rising business leaders who will carry our economy forward.”

 

Albrecht suggests the selection of USU is a pragmatic one, “a dollar invested at USU goes farther than anywhere else.”

 

This is not Huntsman’s first donation to USU.  Previously he donated to the Environmental Research Center and also the Alumni Center named after his wife’s father, David B. Haight.

 

Anderson underscored Huntsman’s fondness for Cache Valley, “When Huntsman’s family left Pocatello for Palo Alto the only question was whether he would attend Stanford or Utah State.”

 

He ended up in Pennsylvania at the Wharton School of Business.  He graduated at the top of his class in 1959, an MBA would follow.  Wharton is ranked number one in the world according to the Financial Times of London.  It’s former Dean, and a friend of the Huntsman family, Tom Gerrity, offered these impromptu remarks.

 

“USU is extraordinarily fortunate to have Jon and Karen Huntsman behind you, his name means so much.”

 

In 1998, Huntsman donated $40 million to his alma mater at the University of Pennsylvania, at the time the largest single donation to a business school.  His donation today in Logan is the largest single donation in school history and doubles the university’s goal for the business school. 

 

The donation is part of the $200 million comprehensive campaign announced in March that is already three-quarters complete. 

 

“Our business students of today will be our leaders of tomorrow,” said Albrecht, who first met with Huntsman in June, 2005, to discuss his vision.

 

“This has been an absolutely spectacular event,” said Huntsman, sensitive and respectful of those who have gone before to lay the foundation of the School of Business.

 

A spokesperson for the billionaire from Blackfoot says the philanthropist has committed $293.8 million of his personal fortune to higher education.

 

“(He has) the deepest personal integrity and the broadest humanity I have ever known,” Gerrity.

 

“This event creates a sense of nervousness for me.  It’s easier to slip a check under the door and run,” said Huntsman.

 

Which is what he did, but not before many of the students who had watched the proceedings via closed circuit television met the entourage at the door; leaving behind the pledge, and the promise, the reality that the server could one day run her own company just as the boy from Blackfoot.

 

“Life at USU will be forever changed because of our association with Jon and Karen Huntsman,” Anderson said.

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