For me, there has not been a more reluctant subject of a biography than J. Willard (Bill) Marriott Jr. It took more than a year before he agreed with his daughter, Debbie, that a biography for his posterity would be a good thing. After six years of my working on this family history project, he finally allowed, albeit reluctantly, that the lessons of his life story might be beneficial to more than just his family.
There are many to whom I owe thanks for their help with this book. First and foremost is Bill himself. Over those years, he submitted—which is the right word—to more than fifty interviews, always responding candidly to questions. He reviewed every word of this manuscript and offered both important corrections and delightful additional stories. I am grateful also for the support of his wife, Donna; their marriage of sixty-three years and counting is a true model of love, respect, and loyalty. In addition to interviews with her, Donna’s meticulously kept scrapbooks were a rich source of family memorabilia and news clippings not available elsewhere.
I am indebted to Bill’s father, who was known in his adult life also as Bill or Bill Senior, which I abbreviated in this book to J.W. to more easily distinguish him from his son. I interviewed J.W. at length about his son on two occasions before he died in 1985. His handwritten journals stretching over four decades were a treasure trove for this biography, allowing him to speak posthumously in his own words throughout this book. Scrapbooks from his wife, Allie, were another helpful resource.
All of the Marriott family, including Dick and his family, were generous with their time, especially Debbie, who provided some of the most profound and memorable insights and stories in this book. Along the same line, Bill’s close friends Ralph Hardy and Sterling Colton were longtime advocates of the importance of his biography and provided much-needed support and guidance. Also in this cadre were Bill’s corporate assistants Phyllis Hester and Steve McNeil, who were both unstinting with their time and logistical support.
At Marriott International, CEO Arne Sorenson offered substantial insights and support. I was allowed unrestricted access to the minutes of meetings of the board of directors, which occurred through the kind assistance of corporate secretary Bancroft Gordon. General manager Marty Roth and staff at the Bethesda (MD) Marriott Suites made sure that my home-away-from-home for research purposes was as welcoming and friendly as possible.
Evidencing rare wisdom for a worldwide company, Marriott International has a corporate archives section, which is now helmed by Katie Dishman. It is part of the company’s continued reiteration of its core values, including the spirit to serve, which have made Marriott so remarkably successful. This archive was an invaluable resource for my research, as was the J.W. and Allie manuscript collection contained under the auspices of the Special Collections section of the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library. Not incidentally, most of this book was written in the friendly environs of the Ashburn, Virginia, public library, where the staff and associates (including Debbi Zisco and Becca Welt) were wonderfully helpful.
I interviewed more than 100 individuals for this biography, including many current and former Marriott employees. Prominent among them were Bill Shaw, Gary Wilson, Al Checchi, Brad Bryan, Jim Sullivan, and Rick Hoffman. Additionally, this work benefited substantially from oral history interviews conducted in 1995 and 1996 primarily by Kathi Ann Brown. In order to avoid overwhelming the reader with quotation citations, in most cases I do not specifically cite every quote from my own interviews or those from the oral history project in the Notes section.
This biography would never have occurred without the farsightedness of Jay Todd and Sheri Dew. It was Jay who, in 1982, assigned me to do a profile on Bill for the Ensign, an official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This began my association with the Marriott family; from that moment on, Bill became a personal hero and a North Star example of the right way to conduct oneself in life and in business.
A year after the Ensign assignment, Sheri Dew, then editor of This People magazine, asked me to write a cover story about Bill and his father. She later became Deseret Book’s highly successful president and has moved “upstairs” to serve as executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation. Due to her unfettered admiration of Bill, she was pivotal in finally convincing Bill to make his story available to the general public. She then facilitated this publication by Deseret Book’s subsidiary, Shadow Mountain. I am deeply grateful to Chris Schoebinger and the team at Shadow Mountain for their sensitive attention to this book, as well as the first-rate editing by chief editor Emily Watts.
I spent many years as a nationally syndicated columnist with Jack Anderson, exposing unethical or criminal activities of some of our nation’s leaders. That work was important because I firmly believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant for keeping the country’s leadership honest and true. But when I was done with that, it was time to turn my attention instead to promoting the good works of good people—their positive examples. Bill Marriott was always high on that list.
When I finally got the go-ahead to do his biography for his family, I was elated. As it turned out, I woefully underestimated the time it would take to do Bill justice. For six years, I toiled at the project; it became a mission. It certainly tested Bill’s patience, but he hung in there and was always kind in his dealings with me in spite of his disappointment about the unexpectedly long, drawn-out process.
Writing is inherently a lonely business, and no one can continue day after day, year after year, without sufficient encouragement from close friends and family. Thus my greatest debt is to a quartet without whom I could never have completed this heartfelt mission. Daryl Gibson, my best friend since college, is an expert editor and writer in her own right. She has been involved in every aspect of this project, including mounting the first editing attack to slash the original 1,400-page manuscript to a more manageable size. My faithful friend and counselor Lynn Chapman read every word of the original manuscript and offered key suggestions. He buoyed my spirits throughout the project when he sensed I was flagging. The aforementioned Jay Todd, who has been like a second father to me, was a key cheerleader and editor of the manuscript as well.
And then there is Lynne, my wife of forty-four years. Throughout the long and challenging project, her faith in and support of me, as well as inspired editing suggestions, were of incalculable worth. Indeed, the best things in my life would not have been possible without her, including the adventure of this intense and inspiring project.
Dale Van Atta
Ashburn, VA
February 2019