During his 30 years as an entrepreneur, Larry Miller, the billionaire car dealer and philanthropist, worried about money.
Not about making it — but what to do with it.
He
donated millions to various philanthropic endeavors, including $50
million to build the Salt Lake Community College campus that he
personally helped design, $10 million to the Huntsman Cancer Institute
and millions more on extensive scholarship programs for hundreds of
college students, to name just a few.
"He
looked at money as a stewardship rather than ownership," says his
widow, Gail. "He treated money as if it were God's money and he had to
find ways to do good with it."
The
Deseret News has learned that this stewardship will continue even after
Miller's death in February. In the last years of his life, Miller
established the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation.
Patterned
after the Eccles Foundation, it will fund good works in perpetuity. A
portion of Miller's estate has been placed in the foundation as well as
in a trust to fund Miller's many business enterprises. A designated
portion of the trust will pass to the foundation each month, as well as
money that is earned by the trust.
Eventually,
after the last of the Miller grandchildren passes away, the entire
Miller fortune will be placed in the foundation, including his
professional basketball franchise, the Utah Jazz.
"It
was one of those things that we worked on as a family," says Gail, who
is overseeing the trust. "He didn't want everything he built in his
life to dissolve after he was gone; he wanted the business to continue
and the money to do good things. If it's managed right, the foundation
will go on forever."
Miller viewed
his businesses as a way to help others. He used to thank and recognize
his employees for helping his companies earn the money that funded his
philanthropy.
This year, the foundation is funding the Joseph Smith Papers project, the Hansen Planetarium and the Teach the Teachers program.
In
the years ahead, the foundation, according to Gail, "will provide
assistance to women and children, health issues, things that primarily
make life better for lots of people, not just individuals."
Nothing
corrupts like money, whether it's the gluttonous pro athlete who buys
18 cars, the Saudi prince who spends a half-billion dollars on a
private jet or the CEO who takes millions in bonuses while his
employees are losing their jobs. Miller worried that money might change
him and went to great lengths to guard against it. He rarely bought
anything for himself, wore cheap watches and casual (nondesigner)
clothing and drove nice but unassuming cars. He viewed money as a
responsibility and sometimes even a burden.
"For me, money was the means to an end, and that end is to help others," Miller liked to say.
Miller
worked on setting up his foundation for the past 15 years. Says Gail,
"It was very important to him. This was his life's work. He met with
advisers several times a year. They would gather information and report
to Larry, and then he would mull it over and talk about it and then
they'd meet again. It took a while to put in writing what he had in his
mind. He was very thoughtful and deliberate about this. After working
on it for years, he felt good about it and what it would do."
E-mail: drob@desnews.com