Two incredible businessmen and philanthropists, Ian Cumming and Jon Huntsman Sr., passed away on Friday, Feb. 2. Each made a difference here at the David Eccles School of Business.
Ian Cumming
Ian Cumming, 77, chair of the board and CEO of Leucadia National Corp., gifted the donation to name the CRCC.
“I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Ian Cumming, whose donations were transformational for the David Eccles School of Business,” said Dean Taylor Randall. “Ian provided the lead gift for our C. Roland Christensen Center building, named after his favorite professor at Harvard, where Ian earned his MBA. In addition to that generous gift, Ian supported Discussion Method Teaching at the Eccles School, helping our students engage with hands-on, real-world learning. Ian’s influence on the education of future business leaders will resonate for generations. Our hearts go out to his wife, Annette, who, along with several other family members, graduated from the Eccles School.”
Read a remembrance of Cumming in the Deseret News, and learn more about his life and contributions to the University of Utah here.
Jon Huntsman Sr.
Jon Huntsman Sr., 80, funded two endowed chairs — the Blaine Huntsman Presidential Endowed Chair in the Department of Finance and the Spencer Fox Eccles Endowed Chair in Banking — and also recently made a gift to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
“The passing of Jon Huntsman Sr. is a loss for the entire state of Utah,” Randall said. “He supported the David Eccles School of Business by endowing two faculty chairs for the school, and he set a wonderful example for current and future business leaders around the world not only for his business acumen but also for his deeply generous philanthropy. Our thoughts are with his family.”
Read more about Huntsman’s life in The Salt Lake Tribune, and the impacts he had at the University of Utah here.