The second of eight children to parents Hyrum Willard Marriott & Ellen Morris Marriott, John Willard Marriott was born at Marriott Settlement near Ogden, Utah on September 17, 1900. Known to the family simply Bill, young John Willard helped raise sheep & sugar beets on his father’s farm in the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. His father entrusted him with a significant degree of responsibility on the farm at an early age. As a direct result, Bill rapidly learned to rely on ingenuity and his own wisdom. While in awe of the expansiveness & the picturesque backdrop of the Rockies as a youngster, Bill imagined something greater beyond the confines of his family’s Mormon farm. He quenched his wanderlust by becoming a missionary for the Church in New England at the age of 19. Traveling on his way home through Washington, D.C. after finishing his service during the summer of 1921 he recognized a tailor-made market for A&W root beer (Wikipedia, n.d.).
Marriott returned to Utah to enroll at the Weber Stake Academy in Ogden, & then shortly thereafter graduated from the University of Utah in 1926. Remembering the ready market of thirsty tourists in the nation’s capital, both he and business partner Hugh Colton combined $6,000 to open a nine-stool A&W root beer stand at 3128 14th Street NW on May 20, 1927 (Wikipedia, n.d.). Only two weeks later Marriott rushed back from to Utah to be present at another life changing event, his wedding to Alice Sheets. The day after Alice graduated from the University of Utah, the couple was married in Salt Lake City on June 9, 1927. Their honeymoon was spent in Marriott’s Model-T Ford in a rough and slow trip back to Washington D.C. where destiny awaited (Marriott, n.d.). Marriott’s corporation progressively grew throughout the following decades under his guidance. When the company decided to go public 14 years later in 1953, Marriott stock was offered at $10.25 per share & completely sold out in two hours. However it was not until four years later in 1957 that Marriott increased his corporation’s span to hotels. That year he opened his first hotel, the 365-room Twin Bridges Motor Lodge in Arlington, Virginia (Marriott, n.d.).Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1060954
