Homecoming 2014 Distinguished Service - Joan Woodbury

Few people, if any, have matched the profound impact on Utah contemporary modern dance, as has Joan Jones Woodbury, a 1947 graduate of what is today Southern Utah University. As co-founder of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, coupled with a 47-year-career teaching at the University of Utah, she has brought dance to countless people in our state, nation, and the world, and done so with passion and humor. This year, in the 50th year of her dance company, the SUU Alumni Association celebrates her pioneering life in dance and dance education, and warmly appreciates that her service to the arts over the years has been truly extraordinary.

She was born in Cedar City to a musical family in 1927, and her progenitors were among those revered stalwarts who built this institution. She enjoyed an idyllic country life on the family farm west of town before moving into a home on Cedar City’s Main Street. It was then that the five-year-old was enrolled in a tap dance class, as she loved to move and, truly, has never stopped. While she excelled as a dancer, she found even deeper pleasure in choreographing and creating dance programs, and that would prove to be a hallmark of her life. She credits her teachers for allowing her to explore her possibilities and to express herself. Joan also embraced a strong work ethic through her father’s ranching and businesses enterprises, and her mother’s busy performance schedule and teaching of the piano.

The venerable LaVeve Whetten was Joan’s dance teacher in both high school and college and it was through her encouragement, as well as that of her parents Lehi M. and Bernella Gardner Jones, that she matriculated at the University of Wisconsin. There she studied with the renowned teacher/philosopher Margaret H’Doubler for four years, receiving both her BA and MFA degrees.

She began teaching at the University of Utah, studied as the first Fulbright Scholar in dance with Mary Wigman in Berlin, and in 1964 she and Shirley Ririe founded the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Joan’s earlier studies with choreographer Alwin Nikolais, helped shape her philosophy and aesthetic sensibility for the rest of her career. She was privileged to teach with, and for him, in many locales. Joan has choreographed more than 95 works and has danced or taught workshops and master classes throughout the United States, as well as in more than a dozen countries.

The sterling legacy of the Jones family in Cedar City history is assured, and Jo-An’s siblings have also lived lives of certain consequence. Brother Kerry has been a businessman and banker, and served as mayor and a council member. Kenneth has boldly carried on the fabled family ranching tradition in Iron County and into Nevada. Sister Cynthia, herself a former dance teacher, has long been a major force in the Cedar City Music Arts Association. Marolyn, who served with U.S. Representative Walter Granger, went on to be an active violinist in Salt Lake City. All are thriving to this day.

Joan is married to BAC graduate Charles E Woodbury and has three remarkable children—Todd, Jeff and Jena—with spouses Heidi, Debby, and Casey Jarman, and two grandchildren, Lauren and Cali.

In addition to many choreographic grants and commissions, Jo-An’s many honors include a Chimera Award from the Nikolais Dance Theatre, alumni recognition from Southern Utah University and the University of Wisconsin, the Utah Governor’s Award in the Arts, and the Heritage Award from the National Dance Association. She holds honorary doctorates from both SUU and the U. Today, Joan works to support the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company as it continues its next 50 years into the future.

Joan’s motto of ‘Dance is for everybody’ continues to be a clarion call in our state. A lifetime of sharing her love of dance and what it can contribute to the public good, and to the souls of individuals, has set Joan Jones Woodbury apart as a most special sort of artist and educator: one who reaches from the heart, and without regard to convention for convention’s sake. 

Homecoming 2014 Young Alumnus - Grant Smith

While growing up in Salt Lake City, Grant Smith was much like other boys whose lives revolved around sports. He played, he watched and studied, he dreamed of a career in the arena, and when he’d grab the morning newspaper, he’d quickly pull out the sports section. Immediately after, however, he became decidedly unlike most of his peers, as his second choice for reading material was the stock reports. Yes, young Grant was interested in investing, an interest learned from his grandparents.

And so it was that his talents as an all-state linebacker and running back, as well as a track and field athlete, for the Hillcrest High Huskies earned him a scholarship to attend Dixie College following his 1999 graduation, and that Grant found himself in an introductory class in economics. This time, however, the pattern of sports before investing would end up flipping his interests and his career goals onto that second path.

Along with him on his path was high school sweetheart Catherine Jones, who awaited him as he served an LDS mission in Leeds, England, then returned to St. George for a year before they married and transferred to Southern Utah University, again with scholarships in hand, as Grant majored in finance, and Catherine in sociology. Grant played a year for Coach Gary Anderson’s Thunderbirds as a defensive back before succumbing to the lure of his new educational passion, most tellingly under the influence of captivating professors Joe Baker and Kim Craft. He represented his fellow business students as an SUUSA senator and immersed himself in his studies, tutoring others as well.

After their mutual 2005 SUU graduation, and following a summer internship with Zions Bank, the couple was off to England as Grant earned a master’s of science degree in financial economics from Oxford in what he termed a “transformational experience.” It was there that the couple’s first child was born and following that year they found themselves back in Salt Lake City. Grant worked as a financial analyst with the investments arm of Zions for two years before moving on to Ensign Peak Advisors for another two years as an equity analyst and portfolio manager.

Grant’s drive led his family to Columbia University in New York City, where he earned his master’s in business administration before joining America’s second largest privately held company, the multinational Koch Industries in Wichita, Kansas, as director of business development. After playing a critical role in that corporation’s acquisition of Molex, Inc., a leading manufacturer of electronic interconnectors, near Chicago, Grant was asked to be Molex’s vice president of business development. The Smith family relocated to Napierville, Illinois, last year, the couple’s 12th move in their 11-year marriage.

Essentially, says Grant, his occupational mission now is as it has been for years: to find value in companies that others may not see, and to capitalize on those opportunities for mutual benefit and reward. It is a logical step in his career of ever-increasing responsibilities and he credits many sources for his success, including his year as a Thunderbird football player, where it was reinforced in him the need to set high standards for himself and to commit his energies to their realization.

Although he characteristically brushes aside such assertions, Grant’s success stems largely from his core will to achieve. His genetics and family teachings instilled in him the imperative to set and

accomplish goals. He has always strived to work toward something meaningful and to progress in life. Along the way, he and his wife seek out opportunities to aid others in a variety of ways.

Catherine and Grant are the parents of Belle, 8, Gabrielle, 5, and 1-year-old McKay, and one can be sure those progeny will receive their parents’ formidable constitution to make a difference in the world.

That’s the foundation of this year’s young alumnus of the year, Grant Smith, a most worthy representative of the bold and dynamic SUU spirit.