"Jim Sorenson is one of the world's most prolific and productive pioneers of medical devices," White said. "His inventions had a monumental impact, and they've stood the test of time. Look in any modern operating room or intensive care unit, and you'll see enduring evidence of Jim's creative solutions to tough medical problems."

Mr. Sorenson is also known for a gift he took back in the summer of 1989.

Then-U. President Chase Peterson persuaded Mr. Sorenson to donate $15 million of Abbott Laboratories stock to the U.'s School of Medicine and promised to add Mr. Sorenson's name to the medical school. But rumblings by faculty, students and the community led to controversy over the proposed name change, and those opposed to the gift had legislation drawn up that would remove Mr. Sorenson's name from the school. Ultimately, Mr. Sorenson asked the university to return the $15 million in stock.

Mr. Sorenson also was a poet and composer of LDS hymns, publishing some of them in a book titled, "Just Love the People, the World Is our Family."

After beginning his career selling pharmaceuticals to physicians for Upjohn Co. in Salt Lake City, Mr. Sorenson started buying real estate in the Salt Lake area. In 1957 he co-founded Deseret Pharmaceutical, and the company became the foundation for the establishment of Becton Dickinson Vascular Access. In 1962, he founded Sorenson Research, which was sold to Abbott Laboratories, a Fortune 100 company, in 1980.

He founded LeVoy's, a company that made lingerie for modest women and used Tupperware-style marketing with parties hosted in homes. He also owned and developed thousands of acres of commercial, residential and agricultural properties throughout Utah.

He was elected to the national executive board of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1991.

Honors Mr. Sorenson was awarded include induction into the Utah Business Hall of Fame in 1994 and into the Utah Technology Council's Hall of Fame in 2007. He was dubbed "A Giant In Our City" by the Salt Lake Chamber in 2006.

Not bad for a boy who grew up in Yuba City, Calif., where teachers thought he was mentally retarded and told his mother he would never learn to read. It was decades later that Mr. Sorenson learned his childhood disorder was dyslexia.

Mr. Sorenson, who was born in Rexburg, Idaho, and grew up in central California, is survived by Beverley Taylor Sorenson, his wife of 60 years, and two sons, six daughters, 47 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.P>

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