Huntsman 'lost focus' as teen

If Utahns elect Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., they would have a governor who did not receive a high school diploma — the first in a long, long time.

Huntsman did, however, graduate from college and has an impressive resume, including twice being named a U.S. ambassador.

Still, his teenage academic problems, brief as they were, are in sharp contrast to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Matheson Jr., who did get a high school degree from East High School, graduated from Stanford University and Yale law school and was a Rhodes scholar — one of the highest academic accomplishments.

The latest Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows Huntsman leading Matheson by 10 percentage points. Utah has not elected a Democratic governor since Matheson's father — the late Scott M. Matheson — won re-election in 1980.

So Utah may well elect Huntsman to a four-year term Nov. 2, where as governor, he promises he would increase funding for public education and respect for teachers.

Huntsman says he "lost my focus" and "fell through the cracks" his senior year at Salt Lake City's Highland High School in 1978.

He basically dropped out of school and tried to get his diploma by attending an alternative home-study course that, in part, gave credit for working at a job.

"But I fell a credit or so short" of getting the number of credits required by the Salt Lake City School District for a high school diploma, he said this week from New York City, where he is attending a fund-raiser for his gubernatorial campaign sponsored, in part, by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Utah Jazz executive Dave Checketts, who is spearheading the new Major League Soccer franchise in Utah.

Huntsman said in his senior year he was playing keyboards in several rock 'n' roll bands at the time, as well as playing jazz piano, and high school wrongly fell out of his priorities. "My weekends were playing music," he said.

He righted himself, he says, over the summer of 1978 and entered the University of Utah that fall as a non-matriculated student.

U. officials confirm that it was not unusual for Utah residents to be allowed into the U. at that time on a non-matriculated basis — meaning the first quarter of class work did not count toward a degree, the student having to prove himself academically.

After a quarter of getting decent grades, the U. allowed him to enroll as a matriculated student, Huntsman said.