My Dad, on Father’s Day

Father’s Day always evokes lots of emotions for me every year.

As a father of four, I celebrate the day and I’m filled with gratitude that I was blessed to become a dad. It is truly one of life’s greatest gifts.

When I think about my own father, JW Marriott, it gets more complicated.

I loved my father, of course, but he was very tough on me growing up. There were plenty of rules and high expectations and not much time for affection. Dad was a perfectionist with an obsession for cleanliness and order. He had plenty to say – about how I raked the leaves on the lawn, how I shined his shoes or washed the car, about the grades I got in school and so on. His tendency to never be satisfied continued into my adult life when I began working for the family business. Our relationship was stormy from time to time, until he passed in 1985.

Now, wouldn’t you know it, not a day goes by that I don’t think about him.

My father was the embodiment of the American dream – he had a very humble upbringing and rose to become an iconic name in business. In his youth, he was a cowboy who literally herded sheep to earn money for his family. As inconceivable as it is, when he was just 15 years old, my father traveled from Salt Lake City to San Francisco alone on a train to sell thousands of the family’s sheep.

While he was there, he wandered through the 1915 World’s Fair where the fantastic exhibits filled his head with dreams about travel and achievement. That eye-opening experience helped stoke his ambition.

Back home, he endured the global pandemic of 1918 – the entire family was sick and quarantined. Later, he left Utah to complete a two-year volunteer mission to the East Coast for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was on his return trip home, when he passed through Washington, D.C., that he noticed a pushcart vendor who couldn’t keep up with tourists’ demands for ice cream and lemonade in the hot summer sun. He concluded that Washington, D.C. was a great place for a root beer stand.

The rest is family history. Dad, after graduating from the University of Utah, married my mom. Then he and his new bride, along with family friend Hugh Colton, opened a nine-seat A&W franchise in 1927. When winter approached, they added hot food to the menu, which birthed the Hot Shoppes restaurant chain.

Dad would go on to develop different hospitality businesses over the years – including airline catering and food service management. But the move into the lodging business in 1957 – when he first saw the Marriott family name in lights – would secure his legacy.

As we celebrate Father’s Day this week, I find myself reflecting on some of the values my dad instilled in me – integrity, hard work and compassion. Sometimes, the lessons he taught were painful and unwelcome in the moment, but I am glad he insisted on passing on his beliefs.

He built his business with ingenuity and few resources. His is an incredible success story.

In his heart, though, dad was a cowboy who treasured faith and family above all things.

The night of dad’s passing, I sat at his desk at home and noticed a note he’d handwritten the night before. It was a familiar phrase that said, “The best things in life are free.”

Dad was right about that.

Today, I wish him and every other dad a Happy Father’s Day.