Trucking company donates to University of Utah business school

SALT LAKE CITY — Trucking company C.R. England on Tuesday joined a growing list of donors to help build the University of Utah's new David S. Eccles School of Business.

A $3.5 million gift from the Salt Lake City-based company will create a student community pavilion for the planned $62 million, five-floor, 188,000-square-foot facility. The new pavilion, named for Chester Rodney England, is expected to provide settings for enhanced collaborative innovation as well as house four dozen discussion rooms, the Ivory-Boyer Real Estate Center, student areas on four stories, and mezzanine/balcony space. An adjacent lecture hall will bear the name of Eugene K. and June D. England, C.R. England's son and son's wife.

"This is a company that embodies the spirit of what we are trying to instill in our students," said Taylor Randall, business school dean at the U.

The company is currently in its third generation of family ownership, having grown from a single-truck business of hauling milk for farmers in Weber and Cache counties. It now owns more than 3,700 late-model semitrailer rigs, providing services throughout North America. It has become the country's largest refrigerated trucking company, with more than $1 billion in gross revenues, 36 different business units and operations in America, Mexico and China.

Dan England said the pavilion is in line with the company's values, offering hands-on experience for world-class learning. It is the second of three planned pavilions within the school's new flagship building. The other announced pavilion is the James Lee Sorenson Leadership Pavilion, made possible with a $4.34 million donation to the school.

Eccles school officials expect the first phase of the building to be completed later this year, with the second phase approximately 18 months later.

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