A $41 million gift from Jon and Karen Huntsman to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, announced today, is the latest in a long string of generous donations from the Huntsman family to the Institute totaling more than $300 million.
Jon Huntsman, himself a cancer survivor, first donated to cancer research at the University of Utah in 1993, subsequently giving additional funds to construct a state-of-the-art cancer center and cancer hospital. Although the Institute bears their family name, the Huntsmans long ago satisfied their naming obligation to this University of Utah institution. Yet they continue to support cancer research year after year. Their financial support has transformed the U into one of the top cancer institutes and hospitals in the nation, boasting cutting-edge research and the largest genetic database in the world.
The Institute describes its mission as one of "hope through research, education and care." In addition to performing world-class research, the Institute also provides free materials and services to patients and the general public alike through its Cancer Learning Center and emphasizes compassionate care for patients through programs like YourStory, a free oral history recording program offered to all patients and their families.
It was not always given that the Huntsmans would build their cancer center in Utah. In fact, a number of leading medical centers approached the family with attractive offers to match their funds and provide free buildings, making investment in Utah a more costly proposition by comparison.
Ultimately, however, the Huntsmans chose the University of Utah because of the extensive genetic database housed there and because there was not yet a cancer research center in the Intermountain West. The center would therefore directly benefit the people of this region by allowing them to take advantage of the research and medicines coming out of the Institute.
In a largely consumer-driven society, generous charitable donations give pause. They represent not simply a transfer of funds from one entity to another, but also an expression of concern for fellow human beings. Philanthropy goes far beyond paying lip service to mankind's noblest impulses by taking action, thereby underscoring the truth that the impressive advances of the modern age — the digital revolution and its attendant technologies, medical triumphs over disease and disability and countless other scientific and technological feats — do not alone create the peaceful, productive society for which the modern world is striving. That society is infused with life only by an awareness and concern for the sufferings of other, real people, and by the commitment to do real things to alleviate them.
In accepting the Huntsman donation, University of Utah President Michael Young said, "Jon and Karen are without peer in their commitment to relieve the pain and suffering of this insidious disease … they have improved the human condition in the most literal of ways."
The Deseret News commends and thanks the Hunstmans for their generosity and dedication to relieving suffering in the Utah community and around the world.