Family and friends paid tribute Friday to “the remarkable life and accomplishments” of David P. Gardner, 10th president of the University of Utah and 15th president of the 10-campus University of California system.
Gardner died Jan. 2 at age 90. He was remembered at the memorial service on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City as a visionary leader who treated everyone the same and as a beloved father, stepfather and grandfather with a priceless sense of humor.
President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the president of Brigham Young University, Utah’s largest private school, at the same time Gardner was president of the University of Utah, then the state’s largest public school.
“Educators in Utah have always taken great pride in the unique education leadership accomplishments of our dear friend and mentor, David P. Gardner,” President Oaks said at the memorial service.
He described Gardner as a longtime friend and said they held concurring views about the relationship between the University of Utah and BYU.
“David Gardner and I both tried to conduct our separate responsibilities in the realization that the strength of our own institution was importantly enhanced by the strength of our sister institution in the same state,” President Oaks said. “We both knew that the best general relationship between our universities was cooperation, not competition. Of course, competition inevitably dominated during the few weeks of the annual red-and-blue contests, but the ongoing relationships and bragging rights should better be dominated by cooperation in education.”
The tribute service was held in the Thompson Chamber Music Hall at David Gardner Hall, which is named for the late president, not far from Libby Gardner Concert Hall, named for his late wife.
President Oaks said he and David Gardner had much in common, though they didn’t meet until their service as university presidents in Utah overlapped from 1973-1980. Both were Latter-day Saints whose undergraduate studies at BYU also overlapped in the early 1950s. Each returned to Utah to take their presidential posts from professorships and administrative duties elsewhere, Gardner in California and President Oaks in Illinois.
Both also gave similar advice when invited to submit recommendations to President Richard M. Nixon’s commission on campus unrest. The two men also regularly talked together about their governing boards, which at the time were composed of some of the same people.
President Oaks led a moment of silence for Gardner near the end of Friday’s memorial service.
“I propose that we join in a moment of silent tribute, each our own way, a tribute that expresses thanks for the remarkable life and accomplishments of David P. Gardner,” he said. “If we feel to do so, we can also use this occasion for silent acknowledgement of his continued life, an expectation for each of us which I know to be assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of Gardner’s daughters, Shari Olmstead, said her father wore his many hats with “excellence and warmth,” from newspaper delivery boy in Berkeley, California, to student body president in high school and dishwasher at Echo Lake near Lake Tahoe to Sunday School teacher and chairman of various corporate and charitable boards.
She said one of her father’s dear friends described him to her as “one in a million. He always knew the right thing to do, the fair thing to do, the best thing to do.”
“I could not agree more,” Olmstead said.
She said Gardner humbly remained the same person in every setting, and treated people equally.
“A Bay Area reporter once asked Dad how his family felt about his notoriety involved with the responsibilities at the head of one of the world’s most widely known and respected university systems,” she recalled. “His response was, ‘They know about it, but our relationship is not altered by it. They just see me as Dad.’”
Olmstead said she was blessed to have Gardner as her father and spoke about her Latter-day Saint belief in the afterlife.
“I am grateful to know where he is, that he is surrounded by the love of his Savior and that we will all have a chance to be with him together again someday. Love you, Dad.”
Gardner’s stepson, Matthew Rodgers, read a short Irish blessing for his stepfather, whom he has described as the GOAT — greatest of all time.
Gardner served in the U.S. Army for two years after the Korean War.
“Dad, Papa, from the sailor to the soldier, fair winds and following seas,” Rodgers said.
One of Gardner’s grandchildren, Libby Dunne, also spoke. She said Gardner provided valued advice about “sticking to your guns when you know you’re right and prioritizing your happiness and fulfillment in the work that you’re doing rather than the money you might make in your career.
“But I think the one that we all remember the most is to prioritize the relationships with family and friends, as these are the people who will stand by your side through it all,” she said.
University of Utah President Taylor Randall also attended Friday’s service.
The University of Utah Institute Singers ended the service by singing the Latter-day Saint hymn “Come, Come, Ye Saints.”
To see Gardner’s obituary, click here. Donations in Gardner’s honor may be made to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, a cause dear to him.
Another celebration of Gardner’s life will be held Jan. 19 at 4:30 p.m., at The Faculty Club on the University of California, Berkeley campus.
Gardner served as the UC system president from 1983-92. He published a memoir titled “Earning My Degree: Memoirs of an American University President.”