It’s clear that the SUU experience becomes a family affair for
many, as lives tend to entwine serendipitously and enduringly around the shared
wonders of the University. Ted and Melinda Whitaker stand
as prime examples of that thesis.
While each made a truly significant mark on campus life
while students at SUU, the couple has joined to support the University in a
variety of ways over the years as alumni. Ted’s tenure in service to SUU and
its alumni spanned more than a decade, and he was an instrumental building
block in the alumni chapters movement. As a true partner, Melinda dove right in
with her husband to do all she could to further the causes of the institution
and its alumni operations.
Each was born in Cedar City, but lived a couple of hundred
miles apart through their youth. In 1965, Ted graduated from Granger High
School in southwest Salt Lake County and came to SUU first. Melinda joined him
from Beaver High in 1967. They worked together in student government, sharing
an office, as Ted served as secretary of social affairs and Melinda as secretary
of cultural affairs. She reigned as homecoming queen in 1969 and went on to the
Miss Utah pageant while Ted saw his days at SUU interrupted by an LDS mission
to Brazil and a semester abroad in Europe. Although they were dance partners in
SUU’s International Folk Dance team, it was some time before Ted and Melinda
embarked on the romance that has now lasted more than 40 years and produced
four children and 10 grandchildren. They married shortly after their mutual
graduation from SUU in 1971, Ted with a degree in languages and Melinda in
elementary education. They proudly confirm that their years at SUU changed
their lives and each readily points to Ken Benson as a seminal figure in their
development as leaders, while Ted also credits Rod Decker, Gary Giles, Al Tait,
Dixie Leavitt, Anne Leavitt and Mike Leavitt as notable exemplars and Melinda calls
Laveve Whetten, Bessie Dover, Kent Myers, and Georgia Beth Thompson great
influences on her life.
Through their life together, they have lived in Mesa,
Arizona, Fillmore, Utah and now, Orem. Melinda has taught school for many of
those years while Ted largely found his calling in the insurance business,
having retired in 2011 from a long career with Allstate after beginning with
Dixie Leavitt. Melinda, who earned a master’s degree from BYU in 2006, has been
repeatedly recognized as an exceptional educator and still teaches today. Ted,
who has been honored on many fronts, was a leader in the Junior Chamber of
Commerce in Fillmore and for the State of Utah and has been a city councilman,
a pilot, a volunteer fireman and a commander of search and rescue teams. His
service to SUU includes a stint as the president of the Utah County Alumni
Chapter and more than five years as the National Alumni Vice President of
Chapter Relations.
Throughout the years, Ted and Melinda have ever been committed to the University and dependable and steadfast in their service. They have steered countless students to campus and have always epitomized the type of alumni that any institution hopes for.
Throughout the years, Ted and Melinda have ever been committed to the University and dependable and steadfast in their service. They have steered countless students to campus and have always epitomized the type of alumni that any institution hopes for.
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