# Jon M. Huntsman Sr.

Source: https://onco.cc/people/jon-huntsman/  
OnCo record `jon-huntsman` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A chemicals billionaire treated for cancer several times, he and his wife Karen founded Huntsman Cancer Institute in 1995 and their family gave more than $400 million to build its research institute and hospital.

## Summary

Jon M. Huntsman Sr. (1937-2018) built Huntsman Corporation and, after his own cancer diagnoses and the deaths of both parents from cancer, decided to build a cancer centre in Utah. Huntsman Cancer Institute records that it was founded in 1995 by Jon M. Huntsman Sr. and his wife Karen, and the Huntsman Cancer Foundation states that the family's landmark gifts total more than $400 million to build the Institute and its hospital. The Institute became an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centre and, drawing on Utah's population database, a leading centre for hereditary cancer genetics, including the discovery of genes behind familial melanoma and colon cancer. Huntsman's insistence that the hospital feel like a hotel rather than a ward shaped its design.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Also known as: Jon and Karen Huntsman
- Tags: hero; donor; patient
- Role: Cancer survivor who founded and funded Huntsman Cancer Institute
- Specialisms: Cancer centre building; Hereditary cancer research; Patient care

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Huntsman_Sr.
- Huntsman Cancer Institute: about us: https://healthcare.utah.edu/huntsmancancerinstitute/about-us
- Huntsman Cancer Foundation: about us: https://healthcare.utah.edu/huntsmancancerinstitute/foundation/about-us

## Connected records

- institutions: [Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah](https://onco.cc/institutions/huntsman/)
- terms: [Hereditary cancer syndromes](https://onco.cc/terms/hereditary-cancer-syndromes/)
- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [Inherited risk is mostly unidentified](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-hereditary-risk/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/jon-huntsman.json