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Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions co-founder Dr. Mike Skurja speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the university's headquarters in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023. At left is his wife, Nancy Skurja.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Guests look out to Provo City from the window of the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions headquarters during a tour Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions President Cameron Martin speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the university's headquarters in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald file photo

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Guests look at a replica Sizzler booth and napkin drawn on by Richard Nielsen in the first floor of the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions headquarters during a tour on Monday, June 5, 2023

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions founding President Richard Nielsen points to the speaker during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the university's headquarters in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions co-founder Larry Hall listens to speakers during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the university's headquarters in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Provo City Mayor Michelle Kaufusi speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions headquarters in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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A sign reading "Dr. Michael & Nancy L. Skurja Lake View Room" hangs on the eighth floor of the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions building in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions president Cameron Martin speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the university's headquarters in Provo on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Over the past 25 years, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions has grown from an idea mentioned in the booth of a Sizzler in Provo to a full-fledged institution focused on graduate health care education. On Monday, the university held a ribbon-cutting and grand opening for the tower headquarters on Provo’s southern edge.

“I can summarize our mission in five words: to improve the human condition. And the how of that, I summarize in seven words: to love and lift those in need,” said Cameron Martin, president of RMUHP. “We do it by training our students to be content experts in their chosen field of health care, to see the love and lift those they serve.”

Joining Martin for the celebration, and for the university’s “founder’s week” were the school’s three founders — Richard Nielsen, Larry Hall and Mike Skurja. The original trio joined nearly a dozen RMUHP executives, invited students and faculty members, and Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi.

Nielsen stepped down as president of Rocky Mountain University in January after taking the title during the school’s founding. Hall joined the group while working as a professor and department chair at Brigham Young University and Skurja spent 20 years with RMUHP, including as the first vice president of academic affairs.

After his retirement in 2018, Skurja returned to the school as the chair of the board of trustees. He was given time to speak Monday after being informed the eighth-floor room where the ribbon cutting was held will be called the “Dr. Michael & Nancy L. Skurja Lake View Room.” Standing in the room bearing his and his wife’s names, Skurja reflected on the 25-year journey.

“We had no building. We had really no programs. We had no syllabi, and we didn’t know what the three of us were going to do,” he said. “We are so so very blessed.”

Kaufusi connected the opening of the headquarters with other moments from the past year, citing recognition by the Milken Institute, the new city hall building, new airport terminal and BYU joining the Big 12 athletic conference as “recent highlights in our community.”

She also expressed gratitude for Nielsen, Martin and Stephen Whyte, vice president of communications at RMUHP and a state representative, who was not present Monday.

“Since 2014, RMU has given more than 90,500 volunteer hours and $5.86 million in pro bono services. It’s amazing and incredible,” Kaufusi said. “Thank you for choosing Provo as your birthplace and as the location for your beautiful new home.”

The new building will include four health clinics — the RMU Eye Institute, the Center for Communications Disorders, the RMU Counseling Clinic and an Occupational Therapy clinic — in addition to the cadaver lab, digital anatomy lab and a series of classrooms, study rooms and resource areas. The university also boasts a combination of in-person, hybrid and fully online programs.

The building is an eight-floor tower overlooking, from one side, the entirety of Provo City and beyond, while the other looks over the under-construction Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine building and land. According to Kyle Terry, project director for Westland Construction, it was built with a goal of living up to the name on the exterior.

“They conveyed the need for this to be a place where students could come and receive first-class instructions, a place where the students could feel engaged and inclusive, a place where you could look out the windows and see the beauty that lies beyond,” Terry said. “It truly has been Westland’s privilege to be part of this exciting project, as well as several others. I am personally excited to see where you go from here.”

Along with the welcome center and entryway, the first floor of the building includes memorabilia highlighting the university’s journey, from magazines to a replica of the booth from Sizzler, complete with signage and one of the napkins covered in Nielsen’s drawing.

Martin told the group it’s one of many napkins used for the process — “But hey, this one had the better design.”

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