But he left in 1979 to serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan, where he learned Mandarin Chinese, which has served him well in being ambassador to Singapore during the administration of former President George H.W. Bush and a U.S. trade ambassador for the Far East for the younger President Bush.

Huntsman returned from his mission, attended the U. for several years, joined a fraternity and got married. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania (where his father earned an MBA) in 1984, taking international business and Asian studies courses.

Huntsman received a bachelor of arts degree in political science in May 1987, University of Pennsylvania officials confirm.

Huntsman then went to work as a product manager for the family petro-chemicals business, which was just starting its meteoric rise. This month, Huntsman Chemical Corp., the largest privately held petro-chemicals firm in the world, announced it would go public sometime next year.

Company founder and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. is one of Utah's few billionaires. Nine years after Huntsman Jr. was allowed into the U. on a non-matriculated basis, the Huntsman family started making large donations to the U., a practice it continues today in helping fund the Huntsman Cancer Institute and Hospital on the U.'s campus.

But those donations — now totaling more than $200 million — coming as they did after 1978, had nothing to do with Huntsman Jr.'s treatment as a student, says Fred Esplin, U. vice president for university relations.

And U. vice president for student affairs Barbara Snyder says how Huntsman Jr. was treated was an accepted procedure in 1978 for a Utah resident applying to enter the taxpayer-funded state university. A high school diploma was not required, she said, as the U. followed a "basically open enrollment process" for residents back then.

Huntsman Jr. says his teenage troubles made him stronger.

"I'm always mindful of those who struggle and fall through the cracks," he said. "I make an extra effort to help them. If you stumble and fall and pick yourself up. . . . That's what life's about. I'm stronger because I failed a time or two."

Huntsman said some may look at his rock 'n' roll bands, dropping out of high school, and wonder what happened to him. It had nothing to do with substance abuse, he said.

He said he was the junior class president but lost a bid for senior class president, then lost another student election, then drifted a bit. "I thought I was a loser. I lost my focus."

The night the Class of 1978 graduated from Highland High School, "I was actually working, trying to earn enough credits" to pick up his degree that summer. But it didn't happen.

Still, he ended up "doing very well in college, getting a degree, studying things I love — international business, politics and Asian studies."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com