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A Billionaire from Blackfoot

7/5/2021

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How many billionaires have been born in Blackfoot? I’ll wait while you compile the list. Here’s a hint: I was born there. But I’m not on that list.
 
I can think of only one but correct me if you came up with others.
 
Jon Huntsman Sr., born in Blackfoot, was a billionaire chemical industrialist, which is an achievement in its own right. But he was also a notoriously generous philanthropist, giving away more than $1.5 billion during his life and founding the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in 1993, one of America’s major cancer research centers.
 
Huntsman had a political side. He was the White House Staff Secretary in the Nixon administration. In 1988 he began raising money to run for governor of Utah. He backed out of the race to back Governor Norm Bangerter, saying that party unity was more important to him than a political career.
 
His son, Jon Huntsman Jr., became governor of Utah in 2005, serving until 2009. Huntsman Jr also served as U.S. Ambassador to China, after an unsuccessful presidential run.
 
Both Jon Huntsman Sr and Jon Huntsman Jr have extensive Wikipedia pages, should you want to read more.
 
The billionaire philanthropist was born in Blackfoot, Idaho in 1937. His father, Alonzo Blaine Huntsman was piano teacher. The family moved to Palo Alto, California in 1950 where Alonzo earned an M.A. and Ed.D, later becoming a superintendent of schools.
Picture
Jon Huntsman Sr, courtesy of the Science History Institute.
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    Rick Just has been writing about Idaho history since 1989 when he wrote and recorded scripts for the Idaho Centennial Commission’s daily radio program, Idaho Snapshots. One of his Idaho books explores the history of Idaho's state parks: Images of America, Idaho State Parks. Rick also writes a regular column for Boise Weekly.

    Rick does public presentations on Idaho's state park history and the history of the Morrisite war for the Idaho Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau.idahohumanities.org/programs/inquiring-idaho/
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