Vernal Event Honors Donors

Dignitaries from throughout Utah joined USU President Stan L. Albrecht in Vernal Oct. 25 for the announcement of the largest gift in the university’s history, a $15 million donation from Utah entrepreneur and businessman Marc Bingham and his wife, Debbie.

The gift will go toward construction of the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center, which will be a state-of-the-art, high-tech facility on USU’s Uintah Basin Campus to train students in business, entrepreneurship, accounting, engineering, water management, natural resources, environmental policy and other programs.

 

President Albrecht told the crowd that the gift will have lasting effects on the educational culture and environment in the Uintah Basin. It will raise the level of education and the quality of life in the Basin.

 

“But, most important for the community, it will support Utah State University's broader effort to help the basin recruit its own, educate its own and return them to the local community as educated citizens, businesspeople and leaders,” Albrecht said.

 

The president also thanked Vernal resident Bob Williams, who was in the luncheon audience and who donated the land upon which the new center will reside.

 

Marc Bingham is a graduate of Utah State University with a degree in wildlife management. In 1971, he founded and became the chief executive officer of PDC (Phone Directories Company), one of the most successful independent publishers in the yellow page industry. Prior to beginning PDC, he worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Price.

 

Debbie Bingham is former vice president of sales and business development officer for PDC. She was with PDC for more than 22 years. Prior to that, she worked as a manager for First Security Bank. She has been involved with the foundation board for Utah Valley State College, soon to become Utah Valley University, and she supports many pro-education causes, in particular educational causes that impact single mothers.

 

Debbie Bingham said the company, PDC, likes to say that its mission is to “grow people.” She told the crowd Thursday that now she and her husband hope to help grow the Uintah Basin community and to help address the challenges it faces as it tries to build strong leaders for the future.

 

Marc Bingham, who said he is still “just a redneck” from the Uintah Basin, told the audience that he was taught early in life to set goals in every facet of his life, and now that many of those goals have been met, it is time to give back to the community that gave him so much when he was growing up.

 

The design and programming phase of the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center begins in fall 2007 with construction starting in early 2008 and occupancy expected in 2009. The building will create a dynamic new research component for the Uintah Basin, President Albrecht said. Research teams housed in the center will have the ability to attract external funding from government agencies and industry that will benefit the local community. This increased research funding from state, federal and industry grants will assist the campus in recruiting and retaining students and faculty who will work and live in the Basin.

 

Contract: Rob Behunin (435) 722-1770, robert.behunin@usu.edu
Writer: Tim Vitale (435) 797-1356, tim.vitale@usu.edu