Utah Valley University president takes sabbatical in wake of husband’s death​on February 18, 2025 at 10:27 pm

The president of Utah Valley University is taking a brief sabbatical in the wake of her husband’s recent death.

The president of Utah Valley University is taking a brief sabbatical after the death of her husband, Jeffrey S. Tolk, an adjunct professor of finance at UVU and mentor to many students who died earlier this month in Ecuador.   

The president of Utah Valley University is taking a brief sabbatical in the wake of her husband’s recent death.

Astrid Tuminez, who has led UVU since September 2018, will take leave from her post through March 31.

The request was approved Tuesday by the executive committee of the Utah Board of Higher Education, which oversees public college presidents in the state.

“We’re all very shocked and sorry for the loss of President Tuminez’s husband and completely understand her request for leave,” said board Chair Amanda Covington.

Tuminez is currently the longest serving university president in the state. And she oversees the largest public college, with nearly 47,000 students enrolled at the Orem school.

She has named Jim Mortensen, the school’s vice president of finance, to be acting president until she returns. The higher education board also approved that appointment Tuesday.

Tuminez’s husband, Jeffrey S. Tolk, died on Feb. 5. Tolk was a fixture on campus, often seen standing by his wife’s side and attending every athletic event to cheer on the Wolverines. He was also an adjunct professor of finance at UVU and a mentor to many students.

He “believed deeply in UVU’s inclusive mission to educate every student for success in work and life,” his obituary says.

In a statement earlier this month announcing his death, the school said: “We will miss him more than words can express.”

Tolk was 61 years old, according to his obituary.

He got his undergraduate degree in English at Harvard University — with a break to serve a proselytizing mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Switzerland and France from January 1983 to June 1984 — and then went on to Harvard Law School. After that, he worked as a corporate litigator before shifting to financial analysis to be home more with his kids.

He and Tuminez had met at Harvard in 1986 and were married in 1988 in the Salt Lake Temple, according to the obituary. The two traveled the world together, living for a time in Singapore where Tolk started his own business..

In 2016, Tolk was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. His doctor had told him, according to the obituary, that exercise could help stave off some of the symptoms. So Tolk, already a marathon runner, turned next to climbing mountains, summiting many notable peaks.

He died on his last climb of Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador after suffering a pulmonary embolism and complications from the high altitude, the obituary says.

“Jeffrey spent his last moments doing what he loved,” it reads. “He wanted to live fully, so he did.”