Benning Society
About the Benning Society
The H.A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowment was established through a generous gift of $22.5 million to the University of Utah through the estate of Arthur E. Benning, who was president and chairman of the board of Amalgamated Sugar Company. The gift is in honor of Mr. Benning’s parents, H.A. and Edna Benning. The endowment allows the university’s medical school to recruit and retain top researchers and clinicians in a variety of fields, as well as sponsor an annual public lecture featuring leading-edge researchers throughout the United States and the world.
Currently, the Benning Society consists of fifteen Chairs. These are time-limited awards (five years on the academic calendar, with the option of a second five-year term) and are intended to facilitate research activities for the chair holders. Membership in the Society requires excellence in research and a tradition of service to the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, the University, and the larger academic community. Potential candidates are nominated by their Department Chairs (or by other Department Chairs if they already hold such an appointment) in response to an annual request on those years for which Chair openings are anticipated. In order to become a Chair, a nominee must:
- Be a faculty member in good standing with a tenured appointment in the University of Utah School of Medicine
- Have achieved eminence within their field of endeavor.
- Have demonstrated a substantial willingness to participate in and contribute to University-wide programs and events.
- Have demonstrated the ability to instill curiosity and future education and development of others who will enhance biomedical research.
About the Bennings
H. A. Benning 1879–1962
The driving force behind Amalgamated’s operational growth was the Benning family. H.A. Benning was born in 1879 in Lyons, New York. Benning began his career in the sugar-beet industry in 1900 at a sugar factory in his home town. Over the course of his career Benning worked for the Eastern Sugar Company, the Great Western Sugar Company, and the Holly Sugar Corporation. In 1929 he was named vice president of the Amalgamated Sugar Company. He was named company president in 1941 and remained in that position until his death in 1962.
Determined to make Amalgamated the best in the business, H.A. Benning built new plants in Nampa, Idaho, and Nyssa, Oregon; opened sales distribution centers in Portland and Seattle; and established Amalgamated’s retail trademark, “White Satin.”
Arthur E. Benning 1912–1990
Arthur E. Benning was raised in the sugar business. He began his career in 1932 working in his father’s Ogden factory. In 1962 he succeeded his father H.A. Benning as president. In 1976 he was elected chairman of the board of Amalgamated Sugar. He retired in 1982 after 50 years of service. Benning spent 50 years at the Ogden, Utah-based company before retiring in 1982. He died of a heart attack at age 78 in 1990. His wife, Rosemary, died in 2004.
Mr. Benning’s decision to leave his estate to the University of Utah came, in part, after he remembered the care a colleague’s daughter had received at the University of Utah Hospital. In 1969 Allan Lipman, a co-worker and friend of the Benning’s thought his three-year-old daughter, Tracy, was going to die. Doctors at the University of Utah discovered she was suffering from a rare and often fatal blood disorder called dermatomyositis. Benning, who had no children, told Lipman to take off all the time at work he needed to care for his ailing daughter.
Ten years later, Mr. Benning was in the process of re-evaluating the selection of organizations and causes that could benefit from his estate. Mr. Lipman explained that the University of Utah had a great medical school. “Art remembered my family’s great experience when the hospital saved our little three-year-old-daughter during my first year of employment with Amalgamated,” said Mr. Lipman. "I know that Art would be very proud to know that the fruits of his labor will support the important work of talented physicians and scientists here in Utah both now and into the future," said Mr. Lipman.
Contact Us
Michaela Parkin
Senior Operations Strategist
Office of Advancement
michaela.parkin@utah.edu