Engine That Could in a few words: that train is a pessimist.

The little engine in that moralistic children's book lugged

a load over a steep hill because it "thought it could." Ivory says there

is no thought about it: He will be Salt Lake County's next mayor.

"I get things done. There's no doubt that I'm going to win,"

says Ivory, 64.

The former owner of Ivory Homes, Utah's No. 1 home builder,

has been a whirlwind of energy since announcing his write-in campaign Oct. 5.

He is pumping enthusiasm and his own money - up to $400,000 - into the race.

His name is bandied about on newspaper editorial pages and radio talk shows.

The Salt Lake County Republican Party has endorsed his candidacy. So has The

Salt Lake Tribune opinion pages, even though Ivory sits on the Deseret

Morning News board of directors.

"He has the ability to motivate and to capture the heart and

mind of whomever he is dealing with," says his son, Ivory Homes CEO Clark Ivory,

who bought the business from his father and replaced him at the helm in March

2000. "He is able to convey his idea of what he wants to happen and get people

to buy into it."

Not that everything Ivory says is a sales pitch. Sincere belief

- in himself and family, in God and friends, and in good times and bad - is

his credo, he says. It is part of the mission statement that hangs on the kitchen

wall of the family's Holladay home.

Still, Ivory has faced a few failures and challenges along

with many frills and successes. For instance, Ivory was one of 17 directors

of Salt Lake City-based Tracy Collins Bank & Trust Company when it was sued

for negligence by federal insurance officials when the bank failed in 1989.

The suit was later dropped, and Ivory denies there was any wrongdoing. "It was

a time of great difficulty in the savings-and-loan industry," he explains.

Ivory's three-year stint as president of the LDS Church's

England Manchester Mission gets fairly positive reviews. Mormons in Manchester

remember Ivory as a motivator who was very generous, using his own money to

buy movie projectors for many LDS chapels. Baptisms skyrocketed, some observers

say, but the fledgling converts had not been properly taught, and many quit

coming to church.

"He was a very good man and very sincere," Eric Brown, former

bishop of the Crosby Ward, says about Ivory. "But when he left, there was a

lot of cleaning up to do. People were being baptized, and, goodness knows, how"

it all happened.

Ivory disputes that assessment. But no matter what critics

say or the obstacles in his path, Ivory exhibits unflinching optimism. For example,

he thrived as a child even though his mother, Erma, was often in poor health

and the family moved constantly as his father, Clark, embarked on a variety

of business ventures. Ellis attended eight schools in 10 years.

Ivory briefly dropped out of Olympus High School in 1957 as

a junior to drive a truck for his father, who had a contract to haul sand and

gravel. When Clark was forced to sell the truck, Ellis enrolled in school once

again - this time at Granite High School, where he was elected vice president

on the strength of slogans such as "Come Clean With Ivory."

Katie, his wife of 40 years, remembers the first time she

noticed her husband. She caught the greased pig Ivory had procured for a fraternity

party at the University of Utah. Roger Boyer - Ivory's Sigma Chi brother and

a future brother-in-law and, like Ivory, a future developer - later lined up

Ellis and Katie Stohl on a blind date, and the pair got along famously.

"He was so enthusiastic and had such a positive outlook on

life," Katie recalls. "He was motivated, giving and a lot of different things

I wanted in a partner."

During their first year of marriage in 1964, Ivory pocketed

a paltry $550 in real-estate commissions. But Ivory's star rose quickly

after graduating from the U. in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in political science.

He immediately embarked on a career selling commercial real estate.

In 1967 he teamed up with Boyer to form Ivory and Boyer Co.,

which founded and developed the southwest Utah community of Bloomington, near

St. George. That company soon merged with Johnson Land Company to become Terracor,

a major land developer. But Ivory stepped down in 1970 as chief operating officer

to form Ivory and Company.

He was making money throughout the inflationary 1970s, cashing

in on low interest rates and rapidly escalating land values to amass a personal

fortune while making a name for himself in politics.

Among other things, he was elected to the Republican National

Committee and was named by Richard Nixon in 1972 as Utah's finance chairman

for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). He recalls meeting key

White House officials who later were embroiled in the Watergate scandal.

"I was very saddened to see what happened with that terrible

chapter in our nation's history."

The Ivorys were wealthy when they left on their LDS mission

in 1979. When they arrived back home in 1982, the nation was mired in a recession

and, Ivory says, his family was broke. Interest rates were at 21 percent, land

was not selling and his company was running a $2 million per year cash deficit.

Against the advice of his friends, Ivory refused to fold - or to file for bankruptcy.

"I said, 'I've been on a religious mission for three years.

I'm now on an economic mission for three years.' " But it was harder than he

thought. "It took me 12 years [until 1994] to get back to where I was in 1979."

Workers bought into Ivory's belief and the company bounced

back to profitability through building and selling mostly starter homes, primarily

along the Wasatch Front, eking out a small profit on each sale. It reduced its

inventory of surplus lots and its debt load in the process.

Ivory took to retirement in 2000 like he did everything else

- full bore. Besides sitting on the Deseret Morning News board, Ivory

logs many hours on the Hogle Zoo board and serves as an LDS stake president.

But golf is his passion. Until laying down his clubs a few weeks ago to run

for mayor, he played 18 holes, four or five times a week.

"I think I had a golf addiction," he laughs. "Katie told me,

'I know you love the game, but it's just a waste. You ought to be doing more

good with your life than playing golf.' "

Ivory vows to apply the same focus he had for golf and to

save his business to putting county government back on track. State GOP chairman

Joe Cannon says it would be foolish to bet against him.

"He is a freight train," Cannon says. "He is a freight train

coming down the track, and you'd better jump on or get of the way."

meddington@sltrib.com

---

Tribune researcher Becky Hodges contributed to this

article.

A look at Ellis Ivory:

-- Education: Bachelor's degree, U. of U., political science.

-- Work experience: Former owner and CEO of Ivory Homes, Utah's

No. 1 home builder; LDS mission president in Manchester, England; executive

vice president and COO of Terracor, a Utah land-development corporation.

-- Political experience: Republican National Committee member; finance

manager for senatorial, gubernatorial campaigns; chairman of the Citizens Committee

Against Salt Lake City-County Unification in 1978.

-- Personal: Born in Fountain Green in Sanpete County. Married

Katie Stohl. They have seven children.

-- Hero: His father, Clark Ivory: "always positive."

-- Favorite book: As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen.

-- Fun facts: Keeps a file of every golf round in which he scored

in the 70s; is three games up on Katie in "Pollyanna," a board game the two

have played "hundreds of times." Regularly defeats granddaughter Abby - a high

school tennis star - in tennis.