From Brigham to Bamberger to Olive Osmond, display honors 60 who ‘shaped Utah’

Khosrow Semnani is an Iranian immigrant whose life in Utah has embodied the American dream.

The self-made millionaire was nearly penniless when he arrived in the Beehive State in 1968 and, through working at several menial jobs while taking undergraduate courses, was able to earn a degree from Westminster College in physical sciences. He went on to get a master’s degree from the University of Utah in engineering administration, after which he launched hazardous waste companies, including Envirocare (now EnergySolutions), that proved extremely successful.

After selling that operation, Semnani began using his wealth to provide humanitarian service and promote liberty for the people of Iran, which he has not visited since 1975.

Throughout the decades, the philanthropist developed a great love for the United States and its endless possibilities.

He was visiting California a couple of years ago and stopped at an artist’s studio, which had an exhibit of photographs titled: “People Who Shaped America.” Semnani was moved by the faces of some who had influenced his adopted country, and it made him think about all the Utahns who had shaped his adopted state.

“It would be great for kids who grow up here to get to know these people,” Semnani said this week. “It would also be great for tourists who come here to learn more about Utah and all the different people who have made it what it is.”

So the industrialist asked Michael De Groote, Semnani’s director of communications, to assemble a list of potential names and biographical details for an installation called “They Shaped Utah.” It went on display on the second floor of the historic Trolley Square shopping center, which Semnani owns, in December.

Each honoree is depicted by “a newly colorized photographic illustration enhanced by artificial intelligence,” De Groote said in a news release. “The illustrations are accompanied by brief biographical summaries along with a QR code that leads to more information about each person.”

Assembling the group of 60 shapers was, De Groote said in an interview, a complicated assignment.

It would, of course, include lots of Mormon historical figures like Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president who introduced “the Manifesto,” which would mark the beginning of the end to the faith’s participation polygamy. Susa Young Gates, Young’s daughter who was a leader among Latter-day Saint women, and Jane Manning James, a free African American Mormon who came west in 1847, are both among the honorees.

And one historic Latter-day Saint figure — gunslinging Orrin Porter Rockwell — undeniably shaped Utah in some ways, De Groote said, but was “controversial.”

The famous and the not-so-famous

Semnani, a Muslim, insisted on showcasing leaders of other faiths, too, such as Silvestre de Escalante, a Franciscan friar-explorer, and Father Lawrence Scanlan, Utah’s first Catholic bishop.

Then there’s Simon Bamberger, the state’s fourth governor and its only Jewish one.

Many of the honorees hail from the 19th century, including Wakara, leader of the Timpanogo band of Utah, while others died much more recently — like former Jazz owner Larry Miller, former Gov. Olene Walker, and innovative businessman Clayton Christensen.

Viewers also will find athletes such as Wataru “Wat” Misaka, who led the University of Utah to a national basketball title and became the NBA’s first player of color.

Organizers also sought a gender balance — but, because so many of the early shapers were men, they had to look a little wider for the women.

On top of that, they weighed the famous and not-so-famous, working to add a few surprises and some little-known figures.

William Showell, a pony express rider, is on the list, and so is Olive Osmond, mother of the famed performing group, who started the boys singing to raise money for hearing aids for her oldest two children.

“We hope people will find familiar figures — and some surprises,” De Groote said, “and that they’ll learn a lot.”

At the exhibit’s opening, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson hailed its inclusion of so many women and underrepresented communities.

“I’ve always been a student of history, and I love learning about people — especially about people who have either been written out or never written into our story,” she said at the time. “And yet, these have all been people who have contributed greatly to the fabric of our heritage in important, but often in forgotten ways.”

Why is it that “some stories get told and others get buried? What happens when we forget the parts of the past that help make us who we are today?” Henderson asked. “The answer isn’t hard: When we forget where we come from, we can’t properly understand where we are, and we are ill equipped to know where we should be going.”

That is why, she said, this permanent exhibit is so valuable.

‘Let’s tell their stories’

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, also on hand for the exhibit’s opening, pointed out how portraits of her predecessors hanging on the third floor of City Hall “do not fully reflect the true history of Utah.”

The state’s past and present are much more diverse than that, Mendenhall said. “The state has always been shaped by diversity. Let’s tell their stories.”

The Trolley Square exhibit will be a welcome addition to the mural painted on the east side of the Dinwoody Building that features some 280 women from Utah’s past and present. “History is something that is never complete. It’s never settled. It’s never fully written,” Henderson said. “There are always perspectives to uncover and be heard.”

She praised Semnani for working “to uncover the stories of those who have had a seat at the table and are heard,” she said. “And even more importantly, to highlight those who haven’t had a voice or a seat at the table and have never been heard.”

Semnani’s team is now accepting suggestions for 40 more Utahns to be added to the exhibit.

“I owe a lot to this state,” Semnani said. “I want others to take pride in it — as I do.”