| Major Alumni Events | |
The Alumni Association hosts a variety of programs, such as Homecoming, Founders Day, legislative advocacy, the annual food drive, athletic socials, a 5K run, and travel programs. The AA also runs the Beehive Honor Society, the U's oldest honor society.
|
| Famous Alumni | |
- Rocky Anderson (Class of '73) – mayor of Salt Lake City
- Alan Ashton (Class of '66; PhD '70) – co-founder of WordPerfect Corp
- Nolan Bushnell (Class of '69) – father of the video game industry as co-founder of Atari and inventor of Pong
- Ed Catmull (Class of '69; PhD '74) – co-founder and president of Pixar Animation Studios; shared an Oscar, awarded in 2001, for development of software used in the "Toy Story" films and in "A Bug's Life," "Jurassic Park," "Titanic," and "Gladiator"
- Stephen Covey (Class of '53) – business consultant, best-selling author of "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," founder of the former Covey Leadership Center, and vice-chairman of FranklinCovey Co., a management and leadership development firm
- EJ "Jake" Garn (Class of '55) – U.S. senator from Utah (R), 1975-93, and first public official to fly aboard the space shuttle—a seven-day flight of Discovery in November 1984
- Gordon B. Hinckley (Class of '32) – president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Robert K. Jarvik (Class of '76) – inventor of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, which surgeon William DeVries implanted in 1982 in Seattle dentist Barney Clark, who survived 112 days
- J. Willard Marriott Sr. (Class of '26) – founded Marriott International Inc., a worldwide hospitality company that had its origins when he and his wife, Alice S. Marriott (Class of '27), opened a nine-seat root beer stand in Washington, D.C., in 1927.
- J. Willard Marriott Jr. (Class of '54) – succeeded his father as chief executive officer of Marriott Corp. in 1972. Marriott International now has nearly 2,100 hotels in 50 states and 59 countries and territories.
- Andre Miller (Class of '98) – University basketball player and 1999 NBA draft pick for the Cleveland Cavaliers
- Keith Van Horn (Class of '97) – University basketball player and, in 1997, the NBA No. 2 draft pick for the Philadelphia 76ers
- Terry Tempest Williams (Class of '79) – author of "Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place" (1991), "An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field" (1994), and other books, most recently "Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert" (2001)
|