As we wrap up a year of 2020 famous Utahn’s we have visited incredible families, incredible women, prodigy’s, and more! Utah has produced an incredible batch of people that have changed the world in one way or another.
Wrapping up our list, we deep dive into the legacy of Larry H. Miller. Born in 1944 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Larry was a Utahn through and through even with his brief time outside the state. He graduated fro West High school and married his high school sweet heart, Gail. After working in a parts department for a dealership, Larry started his business journey in the automotive industry which he ended up owning more than 60 dealerships through the western U.S.
This month we get ready to close out our year of famous Utahn’s with two more Utahn’s. Although they may not be fully “famous” they are definitely influential Utahn’s.
Jerry Buss is probably best known for his ownership of the LA Lakers up until is death in 2013. He was referred to by the NBA as the greatest owner in sports. Born in Salt Lake City on January 27, 1933 his mother Jessie and his father Lydus, who would end up divorced. At age 9 Jerry moved to Wyoming with his family and eventually made his home in California.
Jerry lived many lives from a chemist, being a real estate investor, a poker player, and of course as his legacy lends, the owner of the Lakers. He changed the way we do basketball. This is the cheerleaders you see on the court. The structured premium seating and music! He wanted it to be an “all-out entertainment” spectacle, and we think it worked!
Lakers owner Jerry Buss (1933-2013). (Getty Images)
John Warnock our second famous Utahn for November was much more of a Utahn than Jerry. Born and raised in SLC, he is a Utahn through and through. John is also one of the few people we’ve featured this year that is still alive! John’s legacy will be one of being a co-founder of Adobe! Yes, little ol Adobe! John was born in Salt Lake City on October 6, 1940. From Wikipedia, “Warnock was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He failed mathematics in ninth grade but graduated from Olympus High School in 1958. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is married to Marva E. Warnock, illustrator, and has three children. Warnock has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and philosophy, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in electrical engineering (computer science), and an honorary degree in science, all from the University of Utah. At the University of Utah he was a member of the Gamma Beta Chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.He also has an honorary degree from the American Film Institute.” In 2019 Kristin Murphy of the Deseret News did an incredible write up on Mr. Warnock’s visit to Silicone Slopes Summit.
Cool fact here the Adobe typeface “Warnock” is named after him!
2020 has seen many challenges in education and it was a scramble to figure out how to do graduations. John Warnock was the Keynote for the University of Utah.
When we picked the Marriott family for this months Famous Utah, we had no idea the incredible impact and how much they were on the forefront of the hospitality industry. From what we learned discussing and researching the Marriott family, their passion for business and customer service is what has given them their almost 100 year legacy.
A little background on Marriott-Slaterville, Utah. Marriott-Slaterville City was originally settled by several Mormon pioneer families, in 1852, including the Richard Slater family, and the Perry, Smout, Marriott and Field families. Many living descendants of these families, including relatives of J. Willard Marriott, pioneer hotelier of the 20th century and founder of Marriott International, still reside within Marriott-Slaterville. Weber State University has an online history of the city and you can read that by clicking HERE.
The patriarch of the family J. Willard Marriott was born at Marriott Settlement (present day Marriott-Slaterville, Utah mentioned above), the second of eight children of Hyrum Willard Marriott and Ellen Morris Marriott. As a child, “Bill”, as J. Willard was called, helped to raise sugar beets and sheep on his family’s farm. At age 13, Marriott raised lettuce on several fallow acres on the farm and the harvest at summer’s end brought $2,000, which Marriott gave to his father. The next year, Hyrum entrusted Marriott, his eldest son, with the sale of a herd of 3,000 sheep, sending him and the sheep unescorted by rail to San Francisco.(from www.marriott.com)
Benjamin Urrutia of the Utah Encyclopedia writes, “In 1927 he opened up a small root beer stand in Washington, D.C., and then quickly upgraded the stand to a restaurant called the Hot Shoppe. He soon opened two others. When the Great Depression hit, he was forced to sell all three. However, he replaced them with two new ones in carefully chosen locations. The Depression also caused the loss of $8,000 of his savings when his bank closed down. But even in these difficult times, chain-store merchandising, with its huge volume and low prices, was thriving. Marriott was determined to apply the same principles to the restaurant business… Marriott could now be said to have invented the drive-in restaurant, now a part of the American urban and suburban landscape. In 1937 he began catered meal service for airlines. Besides restaurants and catering, his empire eventually grew to include hotels, cruise liners, and amusement parks. In 1948 he was elected president of the National Restaurant Association.”
Also of note with Mr. Marriott’s Hot Shoppe restaurants in Arlington, Va., they were the first well-known restaurant chain to abandon the color line in Virginia and open their doors to blacks. The move was greeted with jubilation at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, then taking place in St. Paul.
Lee Benson of the Deseret News wrote, “In 2019, at more than 7,500 Marriott properties around the world, no less than 760,000 people — a number that exceeds the entire population of northern Utah — wear the Marriott employee name badge on a daily basis.”
Through their family history they have developed an incredible philanthropic outreach. They offer community outreach, mentoring programs, funding medical research, and education. You can learn more about their programs on their foundation website.
According to Marriott himself, “You’ve got to make your employees happy. If the employees are happy, they are going to make the customers happy.”
Welcome to your monthly feature on a famous Utahn! Episode 218 we featured the Marriott family. Yes, the famous hoteliers. They were from a little tiny town in Northern Utah, with their name-sake, and created a world-wide empire, in addition to being philanthropists. We learned a lot about their pioneering restaurant business and their impressive almost 100 year legacy in hospitality.
The impact that the Marriott’s have had because of J. Willard’s dedication to customer service is much greater than we ever imagined!
“You’ve got to make your employees happy. If the employees are happy, they are going to make the customers happy.” – J. Willard Marriott.
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