Remembering My Dad 25 Years Later
Almost all of my family and my brother Richard’s family were gathered for a family barbecue, or, in New Hampshire terms, a cookout. We had wonderful cheeseburgers, potato salad and corn on the cob. When the corn was passed, my dad looked at mine and said that his corn was fresh and juicy and mine looked old and dry. He insisted on trading corn and giving me his ear. Then he said, “What we need is better corn around here!” Those were his final words to me.
As many of you know, my dad founded our company in 1927 when he and my mother opened a 9-stool A&W root beer stand in Washington, D.C. When the weather got cold, people stopped drinking root beer. They put on hot dogs, hamburgers and chili and called their little place a Hot Shoppe. All through the 1930’s, they continued to expand their Hot Shoppes into a larger chain of drive-in restaurants and opened their first Marriott hotel in 1957 in Washington.
My father’s final words about improving the quality of the corn at a family cookout were typical of his eternal quest for quality and never being satisfied with anything but perfection. He kept his Hot Shoppe restaurants spotless. Every Friday was inspection day, and in my teenage years, I often accompanied him as he visited the various Hot Shoppes.
We not only inspected the kitchen and the dining room, but also the parking lot, which he insisted be hosed down and scrubbed every morning. When we started opening hotels, he demanded that the bellman have a cleaning cloth and a bottle of window cleaner to keep the fingerprints off the front doors.
His pursuit of perfection was hard on my mother, my brother and me as everything at home had to be as neat and clean as it was in his Hot Shoppes. He built a great business and left behind an enduring quest to always be improving and trying to make the customer experience as close to perfection as possible. He left an inspiring legacy of that great pursuit. He really believed that success was never final.
I’m Bill Marriott and thank you for helping me keep Marriott on the move to perfection.
Remembering My Dad 25 Years Later
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