Utah honors Elgin native

Success didn't always come easy for Jack Sunderlage, but his Elgin roots helped him endure the snarls and pitfalls during a 45-year career in the technology industry.

Not every football or baseball game or wrestling match ends in a win, an early lesson Sunderlage learned at Elgin High School, where he also was student body president.

And in business, whether working in sales at a fledgling computer company or as vice president at a global technology firm, he also realized that not every deal goes through.

"As I've built effective sales teams … you do get knocked down a lot and it's important to get up and keep competing," Sunderlage said.

It's a mantra that guided Sunderlage as he helped build corporations and make his mark on Utah's economy. And on Tuesday, Utah's governor rewarded the Elgin native for it.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. presented Sunderlage, 68, with the Governor's Medal of Excellence, awarded to recognize those who have made career achievements or provided distinguished service.

Since 2005, Sunderlage has been president and CEO of ContentWatch Inc., a Salt Lake City-based Internet filtering service, best known for the Net Nanny software, which the company acquired earlier this year.

When high school ended in 1957, Sunderlage went on to earn a degree in business and economics from Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

His first job was with the Burroughs Corp., a manufacturer of computer mainframes, and he cut his teeth in the early days of the computer industry.

"I have a lot of scars along the way from competing with IBM," Sunderlage said.

Sunderlage later became a vice president at Compaq and took part in key global deals, including a $300 million contract with Intel in 2001.

After retiring early, he also did consulting in 2003 for the Utah Partnership for Education to help create six high-tech high schools in Utah.

Sunderlage recently was in town for his 50-year reunion at Elgin High. He met his wife, Jean, during college. The couple have four children and 16 grandchildren.

While his career has provided a box seat to the evolution of computers, his latest job puts Sunderlage back in the midst of an emerging trend: Giving parents more options to decide where their kids surf on the Web.

"There's a great source of information on the Internet," he said. "But there's a dark side as well."