Ralph Atkin (born Jeffery Ralph Atkin in 1943) is the founder of

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah. SkyWest operates and maintains aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by four partner Mainline (air travel), mainline airlines. The comp ...

in the United States. He founded

in 1972 and served first as CEO, then as Chairman of the Board for 20 years A lifelong resident of

St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, Atkin served a mission for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

in England in his late teens and early 20s. He has undergraduate degrees from Dixie State College and Brigham Young University, an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from

Golden Gate University Golden Gate University (GGU or Golden Gate) is a private university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1901, GGU specializes in educating professionals through its schools of law, business, taxation, technology, accounting, ...

and a doctorate of jurisprudence from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

. In 1970 he was elected Washington County Attorney, a position he served in one term. From 1991 to 1993 he was director of economic development for the state of Utah. Atkin has also been associated with the attempted takeover of

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles ...

(TWA) in 2001 and with the startup of Ghana International Airlines in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

in 2004. Atkin is a member of the Utah State Bar and has a private law practice in St. George. He and his wife, Cheri Bennet Atkin, have eight children and 25 grandchildren. Professional skateboarder James R. Atkin is one of his sons. Atkin is a member of the LDS Church. Among other positions in the church, he has served as a regional director of public affairs. He and his wife have also served as representatives for the church in Turkey. In a 2024 Netflix Documentary "The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping," Atkins was accused of being closely associated with the

World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS or WWASP) was an organization based in Utah, in the United States. WWASPS was founded by Robert Lichfield and was incorporated in 1998. WWASPS stated that it was an umbrella org ...

(WWASP) which sponsors residential behavior modification programs for troubled teens. Rampant abuse and fraud allegations have been made against WWASP based programs which supposedly subjected students to physical and mental abuse.

References

External links

Ralph Atkin Biography

SkyWest Airlines

Ghana International Airlines
Living people 1943 births American aviation businesspeople Airline founders {{Aviation-bio-stub 20th-century American businesspeople Utah Tech University alumni Brigham Young University alumni Golden Gate University alumni University of Utah alumni American Latter Day Saints American Mormon missionaries in England American expatriates in Turkey