Businessman Karl Eller, UA alum and major donor, dies at 90

Longtime Arizona business executive Karl Eller, a University of Arizona alumnus and namesake of the UA’s Eller College of Management, died Sunday in Phoenix. He was 90.

In a business career spanning more than four decades, Eller was CEO of several billion-dollar corporations, including the Circle K Corp., Columbia Pictures and his own billboard company, Eller Media Co.

He was also deeply involved in the UA, both as a major donor and mentor to the business school and as a longtime sports booster.

UA President Robert C. Robbins called Eller “a true pillar of this community.”

“The University of Arizona is incredibly fortunate to carry on his legacy through our students in the Eller College of Management and programs throughout our campus for many generations to come,” Robbins said in prepared remarks.

A native of Chicago, Eller moved to Tucson with his family in the mid-1930s and lived across the street from Arizona Stadium, where his mother rented rooms to students. After a stint in the Army, Eller studied business and played football at the UA, graduating with his lifelong spouse, Stevie, in 1952.

After working for two major advertising agencies in Chicago, Eller returned to Tucson in 1961 to buy the Western outdoor advertising division of Foster & Kleiser, where he had worked previously.

He built the billboard venture into a media company, Combined Media, that owned TV and radio stations and billboard companies across the U.S. and Canada. Combined Media was sold to Gannett in 1979.

In 1983, Eller became CEO of Phoenix-based convenience-store operator Circle K Corp., where he spearheaded a massive store expansion.

But the rapid growth proved unsustainable. Circle K filed for bankruptcy in 1990, and Eller was out.

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He started and grew a new outdoor media company, Eller Media, which was sold to Clear Channel Communications for $1.2 billion in 1997.

Over the years, the Ellers contributed millions of dollars to the UA to support teaching and student career development in the business school, which was named the Eller School of Management in 1999. He also served on the UA Foundation board of trustees for decades.

In 1984, Eller helped found the UA’s McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, one of the first of its kind in the country and consistently among the top-ranked programs.

John-Paul Roczniak, president and CEO of the UA Foundation, said Eller saw the university as a gateway to the world and wanted students to take advantage of the same opportunity.

“He knew that if he just got his education, he could make a better life for himself,” Roczniak said. “So many times, we’d be driving to games and he would say to me, ‘Look at all these kids, JP. They have the whole world in front of them.’”

Eller is survived by his wife, Stevie, their two children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.