Karl Eller

Longtime Phoenix businessman, entrepreneur, sports fan, and civic leader.

A pictorial celebration of a life that touched so many for 85 years.

1988

Cardinals

In 1988, The St. Louis Cardinals professional football team, began play in Tempe at Sun Devil Stadium. Now known as The Arizona Cardinals, Karl and a group of Phoenix businessmen were responsible for putting together [...]

1986

Circle K Shootout

As a Phoenix Thunderbird (lifetime member) Karl presents a check to the 1986 winner from The Circle K Shootout.

1983

Eller College of Management

In 1983, Karl established and funded the Karl Eller Center for the Study of the Free Enterprise Economy at The University of Arizona (UA). In mid-1987, The University of Arizona named its MBA School for [...]

1983

Circle K

In 1983 Karl became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Circle K Corporation and resigned those positions in 1990. During that time, he built Circle K into the second largest convenience [...]

1980

Swensens

In the early 1980’s, Karl was chairman and chief shareholder of Swensen’s Ice Cream which had various locations through out the valley.

1978

PAC 10

In 1978 Karl was instrumental in getting the Pac 8 Conference to accept Arizona State University and University of Arizona from the Western Athletic Conference into theirs. Re-named the PAC 10, it has since evolved [...]