In Honor of His Passing, We Celebrate Ira A. Fulton’s Enduring Legacy and the Countless Opportunities His Generosity Created for Students in the College of Fine Arts and Communications.
The College of Fine Arts and Communications is deeply grateful for the lasting legacy of Ira A. Fulton. Through his generosity, vision and unwavering belief in students, he helped transform the educational and creative experiences for generations of BYU students.
In 1999, Ira and his wife, Mary Lou, supported BYU’s computing programs with millions in gifts to purchase and upgrade a series of supercomputers, which Fulton named “Mary Lou.” At a time when undergraduate access to supercomputing was rare, Ira wanted BYU students to have the opportunity to work with the latest innovative technology.
The impact of his generosity reached beyond engineering. In the arts, the Mary Lou supercomputer created new possibilities for students studying computer animation and digital art, such as the 2003 student film “Lemmings.” Students used the supercomputer to create the animated short, which went on to win a Student Emmy and a Student Academy Award. Ira A. and Mary Lou Fulton’s generosity helped make the BYU Center for Animation what it is today.
Fulton’s support for the arts did not stop there. As the animation program grew, he continued to help provide the technology and resources students needed to pursue ambitious ideas. In 2021, Fulton established the Ira A. Fulton Chair in the Center for Animation with a $5 million endowment. His support has played an important role in helping BYU Center for Animation become one of the nation’s leading animation programs, earning 22 Student Emmys and numerous other recognitions.
For Fulton, his most meaningful investment at Brigham Young University was not in technology, but in its students. Fulton once said, “They know how to dream, and I want to support them so they can reach their dreams.”
His simple statement captures the spirit of his philanthropy. Fulton saw potential in students and believed that providing them with the right opportunities could help them turn their dreams into reality.
BYU’s College of Fine Arts and Communications will continue to be grateful to Ira A. Fulton for his kindness, generosity and personal investment in the students of the college and throughout BYU. His legacy lives on in the films they create, the stories they tell, the discoveries they make and the lives they touch.
To learn more about the life of Ira A. Fulton, read “Ira Fulton: Full of Surprises” from the Winter 2004 edition of Y Magazine