A driven businessman with deep roots in the Mormon Church, the elder Huntsman found little to like about his experience in the Nixon White House. It was poorly run, in his view ? not at all like a business ? and he felt terrorized by H. R. Haldeman, the mercurial chief of staff.
?You asked me what I took out,? he told an interviewer years later. ?I didn?t take anything but fear out.?
Yet Mr. Huntsman did leave Washington with something that proved valuable when he resettled his family here: a thick Rolodex and a deep understanding of politics. In the years that followed, as he became a billionaire industrialist, a philanthropist, a campaign donor and one of Utah?s most powerful men, his connections and wealth proved critical in carving a path into politics for his namesake and eldest son.
Today the younger Huntsman is a Republican candidate for president at the back of a crowded pack. He is best known as a former Utah governor, conversant in Mandarin and politically moderate, who crossed party lines to become President Obama?s ambassador to China. On the campaign trail, he has cultivated a reputation as ?the civility candidate.?
But here in Utah, where many still call him Junior, he remains, for better or worse, Jon Huntsman Sr.?s son. It is both his blessing and his burden.
The father-son bond preoccupies political circles here. Some say Mr. Huntsman, who has alternated between the family business and public service ? including a stint as ambassador to Singapore at age 32 ? has been groomed for politics. Some see him as struggling to emerge from his father?s shadow, or wonder if, in pursuing the presidency, he is chasing his father?s dream.
Mr. Huntsman, 51, says he is pursuing nobody?s dream but his own. He spent last week in New Hampshire, trying to revive a campaign facing single-digit poll numbers and internal strife. Walking the streets of Manchester, asking residents ?humbly for your vote,? he cut a slight, gentle figure, displaying none of the swagger that a life of privilege can sometimes bring.
?He?s my best friend, he?s a father, he?s been a mentor,? Mr. Huntsman said in an interview. ?He set a great example and a high bar in life.?
As founder and chairman of the Huntsman Corporation (the company is run by Peter Huntsman, Jon Jr.?s brother), the elder Huntsman presides over a global chemical manufacturer with 2010 revenues of $9.3 billion. Having briefly flirted with a run for governor in 1988, he has worked over the years to ease his son?s path, according to those who know them both.
In Washington, allies like Jake Garn, a Republican former senator from Utah, who later worked for the Huntsman Corporation, recommended Mr. Huntsman for jobs. In Utah, the father quietly pressed state leaders to install the son as the head of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics ? a job that ultimately went to Mitt Romney, one of Mr. Huntsman?s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. He has been a financial backer of his son?s campaigns.
?This is the son who bears his name,? said Tim Chambless, a University of Utah political scientist who has observed the Huntsman clan for 40 years, ?and the father for many, many years has been cultivating, helping, expediting, opening doors that his very competent and able son can walk through.?
The elder Huntsman declined to be interviewed for this article.
?I certainly plead guilty to loving and supporting and encouraging Jon Jr.,? he told The Salt Lake Tribune last month. But, noting his son?s ?remarkable appointments? and landslide re-election in 2008, he added, ?When people say I?ve orchestrated some of these things, it?s a complete impossibility to have great achievements like that from a father.?
Utah Royalty