Ellis R. Ivory, founder of Ivory Homes, and Roger Boyer, chairman of The Boyer Co., will receive this year's Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce's "A Giant In Our City" award.
The Salt Lake chamber announced Monday that Ivory and Boyer are being honored as the 2009 recipients because they have "changed the landscape of Utah."
The award is generally given to one "Giant" each year. But Ivory and Boyer, who were at one time business partners, will share this year's awards. Coincidently, the two men were not only business partners but are brothers-in-law, having married sisters.
Ivory began his real estate business in 1964, after graduating from the University of Utah. In 1967, Boyer joined Ivory and the two formed the Ivory and Boyer Co., the original developers of Bloomington, a now-well-established community just south of St. George. In the 1970s, Ivory concentrated on land development. Then, during he 1980s, his company turned its attention to home building and became Utah's top homebuilder. In 2000, Ivory sold the business to his son, Clark. Ivory Homes has been Utah's top homebuilder for 22 consecutive years.
Ivory is currently the chairman of the Deseret News Publishing Co. board of directors, vice chairman of the Newspaper Agency Corp. and chairman of the This Is the Place Foundation. He is married to Katie Stohl Ivory. They have seven children and 25 grandchildren.
Boyer is also a University of Utah graduate. He later earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School. During the past 37 years, The Boyer Co. has developed more than 24 million square feet of commercial real estate projects throughout the United States.
Boyer is a board member of ARUP Laboratories and a trustee at the University of Utah. He has chaired the boards of Pioneer Memorial Theater, United Way, the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and the Salt Lake Federal Reserve.
Boyer is married to Sara Stohl Boyer. They have eight children and 24 grandchildren.
E-mail: jhancock@desnews.com