Sam Skaggs Family Equine Education Center

Don B. and Joyce C. Olsen Classroom Building

Don B. Olsen was born on April 2, 1930 in Bingham Canyon, Utah. He married the love of his life, Joyce Cronquist on June 30, 1950.

Don graduated first from Utah State University, then Colorado State University with a degree in veterinary medicine. He also studied at the University of Nevada, Reno, and University of Denver. Don excelled and embraced everything in life with passion. His favorite pastime was backpacking and elk hunting with his family. He enjoyed spending time at his homes in Fremont, Utah and Cameron, Montana. Don retired at the age of 82 from the position of director of the Utah Artificial Heart Institute, where he was a world-renowned authority and co-inventor of the artificial heart. He traveled the world with his wife Joyce, training 23 teams of surgeons on the implantation of the artificial heart.

Aline W. Skaggs Mare Barn

Aline Wilmot Skaggs was born March 13, 1926, in Boise, Idaho. She graduated from Boise High School and Boise Business School. On February 27, 1949, Aline married Lennie Sam Skaggs in Boise, Idaho. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Great Falls, Montana. In March 1950, Aline and Sam moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Sam assumed responsibility for Skaggs Payless Drug Stores.

Aline was very involved in community and business organizations serving on many corporate and philanthropic boards, including American Stores Company, Tracy-Collins Bank, American Television of Utah, University of Utah National Advisory Council, KUED Television, Southern Utah University Institutional Council, Utah Symphony Guild Board, the Airport Authority Board, Utah Opera Board, former president and founding member of the Assistance League of Salt Lake City, the ALSAM Foundation and the Skaggs Family Foundation. In 1990 Aline was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Utah.

Aline was tender-hearted, especially towards her children and four-legged creatures, including horses, her beloved poodles and her pet deer, Lafena.

Aline and Sam gave generously of their good fortune. Recipients of personal and family foundation gifts include many universities, colleges, medical research facilities, schools, churches and humanitarian efforts. Their ALSAM Foundation continues the family’s philanthropic work.

L.S. Skaggs Stallion Barn

Lennie Sam Skaggs Jr. was born August 9, 1923 in Yakama, Washington. The family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1932 where Sam attended local schools and attended Westminster College. Sam served his country in the U. S. Army, Chemical Welfare Division during World War II. He spent 3 years in England prior to participating in the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, landing on the shores of Utah Beach in Normandy, France.

After returning home from the war Sam joined his father’s company, Payless Drug Stores, where he soon became manager of the Boise, Idaho store. While in Boise, he met his future wife, Aline Wilmot, where they were married on February 27, 1949 and soon after moved to Montana. In 1950, Sam’s father died suddenly at age 55, requiring Sam to move to Salt Lake City where he assumed the job of president and CEO of Payless Drug Stores, running 11 stores at 27-years-old.
Retailing was not new to Sam as his family had been one of retailing’s founding families in the West. Sam built the small 11-store chain into American Stores Company, a retailing giant with over $20 billion in annual sales and over 280,000 employees by the time he retired in 1993. In the process he had conceived and developed the food/drug combination store arguably the most significant new retailing concept of the last half of the 20th century.

Many universities and colleges have recognized Sam’s importance to education. A 1970 citation he received from the University of Utah when awarded one of many Honorary Degrees, truly captures his life “To Mr. L. S. Skaggs, Jr., distinguished native son of the West, dynamic personality and capable administrator in the distribution of Pharmaceuticals and health care needs, leader in the intricate and competitive world of business, friend of education and research as the key to our successful future.”

Matthew Hillyard Animal, Teaching and Research Center

The Matthew Hillyard building was dedicated on May 8, 2008. Matthew Hilllyard is the late son of former Utah Senator Lyle Hillyard and his wife, Alice. Matthew, who had Down syndrome, helped cut the ribbon and officially opened the building to the applause of guests, including several of his siblings and their families. The Hillyards are a loyal Aggie family, and Matthew was an enthusiastic supporter of all things USU. Matthew always wore a smile and brought out the best in others.

One wing of the building includes a classroom, offices and several animal physiology and reproduction labs. There is also a suite of veterinary medicine facilities, including a lab, surgery, recovery and animal holding areas. The building’s north wing houses another classroom, USDA-inspected meat lab, refrigeration rooms and office space. In addition to the sizable legislative appropriation to support the facility, then Utah State President Noelle Cockett said the project was a team effort, bringing together funding from the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, USU Extension and individual animal science researchers.

Mark C. Healey Classroom
ATRC 128

One of the Matthew Hillyard building’s main classrooms is named after Mark C. Healey, former head of USU’s Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Science. Healey, who died of pancreatic cancer in December 2007, was a driver of the project and inspired everyone involved in its planning and construction.

Mark was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 7, 1947. He attended the local public schools and graduated from Granger High School in 1965. He spent six years serving in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Mark believed in scientific inquiry to pursue knowledge and truth. He received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Utah (biology) and a doctorate from Purdue University (parasitology). After working 18 months as a lecturer at Texas A&M University, Mark attended the College of Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State University, where he graduated with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1981. He immediately accepted a faculty position at Utah State University where he remained employed until his death. During his first 17 years at USU, Mark and his many graduate students did research on animal and human parasites. He taught biology and pre-veterinary science courses to a variety of undergraduate and graduate students and served as the head of the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences for 9 years. Mark considered the ADVS Department to literally be an extension of his family.