Early Life, Education, and Career
Huntsman was born March 26, 1960 in Redwood City, California. His mother is Karen (Haight) Huntsman, daughter of LDS Church apostle David B. Haight, and his father is billionaire businessman and philanthropist Jon Huntsman, Sr. of the Huntsman Corporation. Through his father, Huntsman, Jr. is the great-great-great-grandson of early LDS Church leader Parley P. Pratt.
At age 15 in 1975, Huntsman earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Huntsman attended Highland High School in Salt Lake City, but dropped out before graduating to pursue his passion as a keyboard player in a rock band called "Wizard". Huntsman later obtained a G.E.D. and enrolled at the University of Utah, where he became, like his father, a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Huntsman served as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan for two years and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in international politics in 1987.
From 1987 to 1988, Huntsman and his family lived and worked in Taipei. After college, Huntsman worked as a White House staff assistant in President Ronald Reagan's administration. In the 1988 presidential election, he was a state delegate at the 1988 Republican National Convention.
Read more about this topic: Jon Huntsman, Jr.
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