Miller's legacy lives on in trust

During his 30 years as an entrepreneur, Larry Miller, the billionaire car dealer and philanthropist, worried about money.

Not about making it — but what to do with it.

He donated millions to various philanthropic endeavors, including $50 million to build the Salt Lake Community College campus that he personally helped design, $10 million to the Huntsman Cancer Institute and millions more on extensive scholarship programs for hundreds of college students, to name just a few.

"He looked at money as a stewardship rather than ownership," says his widow, Gail. "He treated money as if it were God's money and he had to find ways to do good with it."

The Deseret News has learned that this stewardship will continue even after Miller's death in February. In the last years of his life, Miller established the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation.

Patterned after the Eccles Foundation, it will fund good works in perpetuity. A portion of Miller's estate has been placed in the foundation as well as in a trust to fund Miller's many business enterprises. A designated portion of the trust will pass to the foundation each month, as well as money that is earned by the trust.

Eventually, after the last of the Miller grandchildren passes away, the entire Miller fortune will be placed in the foundation, including his professional basketball franchise, the Utah Jazz.

"It was one of those things that we worked on as a family," says Gail, who is overseeing the trust. "He didn't want everything he built in his life to dissolve after he was gone; he wanted the business to continue and the money to do good things. If it's managed right, the foundation will go on forever."

Miller viewed his businesses as a way to help others. He used to thank and recognize his employees for helping his companies earn the money that funded his philanthropy.

This year, the foundation is funding the Joseph Smith Papers project, the Hansen Planetarium and the Teach the Teachers program.

In the years ahead, the foundation, according to Gail, "will provide assistance to women and children, health issues, things that primarily make life better for lots of people, not just individuals."