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Summarized by Kent Larsen
CNNfn Tells Huntsman Story
Deseret News 3Apr00 B2
By Max Knudson: Deseret News business editor
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- CNNfn's 'Pinnacle' program featured LDS
billionaire and philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman in a half-hour
biography broadcast Sunday night. Huntsman's story is well known in
Utah, according to the Deseret News, who compares his notoriety to
Abraham Lincoln, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.
The program gives an overview of Huntsman's life, as well as telling
details such as Huntsman's "world class" collection of Beanie Babies,
his habit of tipping waiters and bell boys with $100 bills and the
magnitude of his fortune. Huntsman was born in poverty in a two-room
farmhouse without indoor plumbing. After graduating from Palo Alto
High School, where his family had moved so that his father could go
to Stanford, Huntsman met paper tycoon Harold Zellerbach, an
opportunity that came because he was president of his High School
class. Zellerbach recommended the Wharton School at the University of
Pennsylvania for College, now one of the most prestigious business
schools in the U.S.
While Huntsman knew nothing about Wharton, he enrolled and graduated,
moving on to the military, and eventually a staff job in the Nixon
White House. He then went to work for Dow Chemical, before deciding
to strike out on his own. He soon landed the contract to provide
McDonalds with its styrofoam Big Mac containers, quickly turning
Huntsman into a millionaire.
But the show isn't without errors, the most obvious the claim that
Huntsman is "an apostle in the Mormon Church." In fact, Huntsman
currently holds a call as an Area Authority Seventy. However, his
father-in-law is Elder David B.Haight of the Council of the Twelve.
The show also touches on Huntsman's two battles with cancer (mouth
and prostate), which led him to establish the Huntsman Cancer
Institute, which he has funded with $150 million.
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