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If you’ve been living in Utah for a bit, you may realize one name pops up over and over: Eccles.
There’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, home of the Utes, lighting the foothills from the University of Utah. There’s Eccles Theater, where Broadway stars and more shine in downtown Salt Lake City.
At the state’s universities, there are the Dave Eccles School of Business at the U., the George S. Eccles Business Building at Utah State University and the Eccles Living Learning Center at Southern Utah University.
And a multitude of nonprofit programs in Utah are supported by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. So who are the Eccles?
The Eccles family traces its history back to David Eccles, who was born in Scotland in 1849. He became an American entrepreneur and industrialist, founding businesses throughout Utah and the western United States. He’s considered Utah’s first multimillionaire.
David’s children included philanthropist and pioneer in early childhood education Emma Eccles Jones, for whom education buildings at Utah State University and Southern Utah University are named. David’s other children include Marriner Stoddard Eccles, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve — in Washington, D.C., the Eccles Building that holds the headquarters of the Federal Reserve is named after him.
(Courtesy University of Utah) A statue of former Federal Reserve Chairman Marriner Eccles, hat in hand and a jacket draped over his arm, stands on the grounds of the state Capitol in Salt Lake City.
George Stoddard Eccles was another of David’s sons. He and Marriner founded the First Security Corporation, a holding company with banks in western states that eventually merged with Wells Fargo.
George married his wife Dolores Doré in 1925 and together, they cofounded the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. The foundation has five focus areas: Arts and culture, community, education, health and wellness and preservation and conservation.
Recipients have included the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Ballet West, Intermountain Health, American Red Cross, Tracy Aviary, Red Butte Garden, the United Way of Utah County and a majority of the colleges and universities in Utah. By 2017, the foundation had donated over $600 million to Utah organizations.
George and Dolores were not the only charitable members of the Eccles family. Six other children of David and his second wife Ellen have foundations named after them, including the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation; the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation; the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation; Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation; Marie Eccles Caine Charitable Foundation; and the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation.
In 2026, the U. expects to open the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, funded in part by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation. Spencer Fox Eccles, chairman and CEO of the two foundations, is a grandson of David Eccles.
