Dean's Message
Dear Friends of the Huntsman School,
This year marks the completion of Douglas Anderson’s magnificent 20-year run as our dean! Our magazine is filled with inspirational stories about our students, staff, faculty, and alumni. I hope you will enjoy reading about our incredible journey and will join us in our quest to accelerate into the future.
It’s easy to be optimistic about our future when we have the best name in the business, Jon M. Huntsman—a name that conveys the integrity, work ethic, excellence, leadership, and compassion that we hope to develop in ourselves. I remember the thrill and inspiration I felt while standing in the crowd nearly 20 years ago at the naming of the School, as I listened to Mr. Huntsman’s vision of students who learn state-of-the-art methods while becoming leaders of unquestioned integrity. I still feel that same excitement today, but with sadness for the loss of a key leader in Utah.
On June 1 earlier this year, Karen Haight Huntsman, the wife of Jon M. Huntsman, passed away in Salt Lake City. Karen was lovely, smart, dedicated, generous, and driven. Since her passing, I’ve reflected on her timeless advice at the opening of Huntsman Hall in 2016: "I hope they teach…honesty, and integrity, and your word is your bond. Nothing else is going to be as important as teaching that to these students."
She’s absolutely right. Our ultimate success will be determined by our honesty, our integrity, and by living up to our word. No shortcut will ever be worth it, if it costs us our integrity. We attempt to capture her magic and influence in a special tribute in the pages below.
The Huntsman School is a force for good in Utah and will remain so. We provide upward economic mobility for students while lifting the economy in Utah and beyond. And while our progress has been stunning, there are many more peaks to climb. Indeed, as Mr. Huntsman once said, "we are just in the beginning years of a great runway to the Moon!"
Frank Caliendo
Interim Dean and Harold Dance Endowed Professor