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Five alumni and one honorary alumnus will be recognized in February.
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Five outstanding graduates of the University of Utah and one honorary alumnus have been selected to receive 2014 Founders Day awards.
Award-winning journalist and foreign-policy expert
Frederick Kempe BA’76; real estate and higher education leader
Kem Gardner BS’67 JD’70; esteemed stock fund manager
Donald Yacktman BS’65; and
Ted (BS’65)
and
Charlotte Jacobsen (BA’64), generous donors to the University of Utah for more than 30 years, will each be presented with the Distinguished Alumnus/a Award.
John Bloomberg will receive an Honorary Alumnus Award. These awards are the highest honor the University of Utah Alumni Association gives to U graduates and friends, respectively, in recognition of their outstanding professional achievements and/or public service, as well as their support of the University.
The awards will be presented at the Alumni Association's Founders Day Banquet on February 20, at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Save the date, and please plan to join us for the awards festivities. To register to attend, click here.
Kempe, who after the U went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, spent more than 25 years a reporter, columnist, and editor for The Wall Street Journal. Since 2006, he has served as president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank and public policy group based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of four books (including New York Times best seller BERLIN 1961) and is a regular media commentator in Europe and the United States, contributing to, among others, CNBC and the BBC. At the Wall Street Journal, Kempe won national and international awards, including participating in two Pulitzer Prizes. In 2002, the European Voice, a leading publication following European Union affairs, named Kempe one of the 50 most influential Europeans (although he is American) and one of the four leading journalists in Europe.
Gardner was president of The Boyer Company for 30 years and has served since 2005 as chairman of The Gardner Company, a private commercial real estate firm. He has contributed to major corporate, residential, and retail facilities, including the Myriad Genetics corporate campus and The Gateway shopping mall. A former chairman of the Utah State Board of Regents, he remains active in higher education, currently serving on the National Advisory Council for the University of Utah. He and his wife, Carolyn, have given significantly to the U, including support for the Honors College and its engaged learning initiative, and annual support of the J.D. Williams scholarship endowment. His community service has included leadership with the Huntsman-Intermountain Cancer Care Program and the Pioneer Theatre Company, resulting in a slew of awards for his philanthropic efforts.
Yacktman received his bachelor’s degree in economics, magna cum laude, at the U before going on to an MBA with distinction from Harvard University. He is president and portfolio manager of Yacktman Asset Management, which he founded in 1992. As head of what remain two of the world’s best-performing stock funds, Yacktman was ranked by Morningstar at No. 2 for domestic fund manager of the decade for 2000 to 2009. Highly respected in his industry, he is regularly interviewed by entities such as Bloomberg News and CNBC, and he has also shared insights with students and deans at the U. He is an extraordinarily dedicated family man and in 2005 relocated himself and his business to Austin from Chicago (where he had lived for 38 years) to assist his adult daughter after she suffered a devastating stroke.
Charlotte and Ted Jacobsen both had primary roles in development of the U’s Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, and they have financially supported many other U entities for decades. Ted, who after his bachelor’s degree went on to a master’s of science degree from Stanford University, headed Jacobsen Construction for 30 years, helping build iconic buildings such as the Jon M. Huntsman Center, the Warnock Engineering Building, and The Grand America Hotel, as well as Church of Latter-day Saints temples throughout the western hemisphere. Charlotte has given countless hours of service to the U, including as a member of the U’s National Advisory Council. Ted is the immediate past chair of the U College of Engineering's National Advisory Council.
John Bloomberg (BS'57, Amherst College; MBA'62, Harvard University) is a former Wall Street research analyst and competitive skier. After his vision began rapidly deteriorating, he was introduced to Dr. Randall J. Olson with the University of Utah’s Department of Ophthalmology and John A. Moran Eye Center. In gratitude for surgery by Olson that Bloomberg has credited with saving his vision, Bloomberg and his wife, Toni, began generously contributing funds to the Moran Eye Center. The John and Toni Bloomberg Ophthalmology Library at the eye center is named in their honor. The Bloombergs also gave the center a large collection of paintings by early Utah artists. "I thought it would be nice if people could see something beautiful when they came out of an eye operation,” Bloomberg says. He has served on the Department of Ophthalmology Advisory Board, the College of Science Advisory Board, the College of Fine Arts Advisory Board, and the President’s Club Committee.