These "self-made" Americans have Utah ties

Here are the achievers with Utah ties:

• Frank VanderSloot, No. 43: The Melaleuca founder studied business at BYU, having run his family farm from age 12.
• Mario Capecchi, No. 54: The University of Utah's Nobel-prizewinning geneticist spent part of his childhood homeless in Italy while his mother was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.
• Gail Miller, No. 63: The businesswoman was "raised in a house with one light bulb that was moved from room to room," Forbes reports. As of 2025, she was Utah's richest person.
• Jewel, No. 103: The singer-songwriter was born in Payson and lived in a van before she rose to fame.
• James Clark, No. 122: The Netscape founder quit high school and joined the Navy at age 17. He later obtained a doctorate in computer science at the University of Utah.
• Alan B. Miller, No. 133: The founder of Universal Health Services wanted to see the West, so he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of Utah — but said he later transferred back east because he wasn't a Latter-day Saint and was too far from his NYC family.