J. Willard Marriott
John Willard Marriott ( born September 17, 1900 in Ogden, † August 13 1985 in New Hampshire) was an American businessman and founder of Marriott International.
Life
John Willard Marriott was born on his parents' farm near Ogden, Utah. He had already assume responsibility early on, so he was sent to San Francisco for example, at the age of 14 years by his father with a train, which was loaded with 3,000 sheep.
From 1919 to 1921 he served on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints as a missionary in New England.
On 9 June 1927, he married Alice Sheets. The marriage produced two sons, J. Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr. and Richard E. Marriott emerged.
1935 was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer Marriott and the doctors gave him at that time only six months to live to a year. Despite this grim prognosis, he managed to defeat the cancer.
Career
As a Marriott in 1926 his degree at the University of Utah, he recalled an experience, which he did in the summer of 1921 on his way home from his mission in Washington DC had made. There he saw someone running with a cart full of lemonade and ice cream through the streets and in a few minutes everything was sold. Because of this experience, he decided to realize his project, the Root Beer Stand there.
In 1927, he secured the franchise rights of A & W Root Beer for Washington, DC, Baltimore, Maryland and Richmond. On May 20, 1927, he opened together with his business partner Hugh Colton his first root beer stand in 3128 14th Street, NW, Washington DC, this had just nine bar stools. As a Marriott in autumn of the same year offering Mexican cuisine, was the Root Beer Stand " The Hot Shoppe " and evolved into a popular family restaurant.
In 1928, he began to expand his company and opened his first drive-in restaurant east of the Mississippi River. In the course of the Hot Shoppes, Inc. was founded in 1929 in Delaware.
During the Second World War, he expanded his business by taking over the catering in government buildings (eg Ministry of Finance).
In the next few years, his restaurant chain continued to grow and in 1953 he managed to bring his company to the stock exchange. In 1957 he expanded the business of his company by He opened a motel, the Twin Bridges Motor Lodge in Arlington. The company continued to grow and so 1967 was from the Hot Shoppes, Inc., Marriott International, in the same year, the Big Boy Family Restaurants, and a year later, the Roy Rogers Family Restaurants part of the company.
Marriott's company continued to expand and began among others, the catering for airlines. Especially in this segment, the company posted strong gains, and so he became very soon the supply of some of the largest airlines, but also from universities and schools.
In the 1970s, his company grew in Europe and the company he founded in the 50th anniversary of the company for the first time as achieved in 1977 a turnover of $ 1 billion. In 1972 he gave the company chairmanship to his son, J. Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr..
Marriott was an energetic worker who even after his company had grown to several hundred restaurants also, every one of them visited at least four times a year.
At the time of his death in 1985 included 1,400 restaurants and 143 hotels and resorts to his company.