Former University of Utah president dies at the age of 90

David P. Gardner, who was president of the University of Utah for a decade, died Tuesday at the age of 90. According to his obituary, he was “surrounded by his loved ones” as he “died peacefully … at his home in Park City.”

Appointed in 1973 at the age of 40 — and at an annual salary of $40,000 — he served until 1983. He told The Salt Lake Tribune in 1973, “The opportunity to serve as president of a leading institution — a university with growing distinction” was “most attractive.”

Gardner spent most of his career as an administrator and professor in the California university system. He was credited with resolving student protests and riots at UC-Santa Barbara in 1970. And he returned to California in 1983 as the president of that state’s nine-campus university system.

Current U. President Taylor Randall touted Gardner as “the visionary leader the University of Utah needed at a time of significant growth. On his watch, our admissions standards increased, our research enterprise was strengthened, the university’s budget more than doubled, and our hospital and medical school grew.”

In a 1983 editorial, The Salt Lake Tribune praised Gardner for reversing “deteriorating public support” for the U., where he “displayed unusual talent in quickly establishing and then maintaining friendly relations with the Legislature and with the state’s business, education and religious establishment.”

According to the University of Utah, the school’s annual budget increased from $102 million to $264 million during Gardner’s tenure, and faculty salaries increased “significantly, making the U. competitive with the nation’s top research universities.” The U.’s hospital secured $50 million to expand its facilities and medical school, and doctors there implanted the first artificial heart in a patient in 1982.

“His vision and passion helped lay the groundwork for the university to become the top-tier research institution that it is today,” Randall said.

A native of California — the son of Utah-born parents — Gardner graduated from Brigham Young University in 1955, and went on to earn masters and doctorate degrees from the University of California-Berkeley.

Gardner chaired the commission that produced the landmark 1983 report “A Nation at Risk” for the Reagan administration. It documented shortcomings in the American education system, and created no small degree of controversy.

Gardner Hall, which opened in 1933 on President’s Circle at the U., was renamed in honor of the university’s 10th president when he departed. The Libby Gardner Concert Hall inside the building was named for his wife, who died in 1991.

They married in 1958, and were the parents of four daughters. After her death, Gardner married Sheila Sprague Gardner in 1995. He is survived by his wife, his daughters, a stepson, four sons-in-law and 17 grandchildren.

Two memorial services are planned — the first on Friday, Jan. 12, at 11 a.m. in the Thompson Chamber Music in Gardner Hall at 1375 E. Presidents Circle; the second on Friday, Jan. 19, at 4:30 p.m. at The Faculty Club on the Cal-Berkeley campus.