In conjunction with the Tanner Building Addition Dedication and the National Advisory Council conference, the school honored Richard E. Marriott and J.W. Marriott Jr. at a banquet 24 October 2008. President Henry B. Eyring, President Cecil O. Samuelson, and Dean Gary C. Cornia presented the brothers with Distinguished Leadership Awards.
About 550 people attended the event, including Marriott family members, General Authorities, government officials, NAC members, and Marriott School faculty, staff, and administrators. The evening included a performance by the acclaimed BYU Men’s Chorus and a video presentation highlighting key characteristics that have defined the Marriotts’ lives and business success.
Excerpts from Distinguished Leadership Awards Banquet
President Cecil O. Samuelson
I believe all of us know of the remarkable public record of the Marriott family and their service at Brigham Young University, as well as elsewhere. Tonight we recognize them for many things, including many more that could be mentioned that have not been. I would like to take a moment to share what has been most touching to me in all the events we’ve been celebrating.
As you know, both Bill and Dick were major motivators in this spectacular expansion project that was dedicated today. I try to listen very carefully when I’m approached by people who have suggestions about things the university should do. You might understand that happens quite frequently. I learned something from Bill and Dick that taught me a great deal about them and about their motivations. As we visited with Dean Hill, his team, and with the NAC leadership, we talked about bringing this vision to fruition, and I learned what the Marriotts’ motivations were not. They were not trying to promote further recognition or acclaim for the already stellar Marriott name. I don’t think they were particularly pushing to enhance the reputation of an already impressive management school. And I don’t think they were driven to add additional luster to an already remarkable university that is striving to become even better. What became very clear, and most impressive to me, was their concern for and interest in students.
Their reasons and stimulus for action were both quantitative and qualitative: quantitative in the sense they believed many more students needed the opportunity of an excellent education not only in the sciences of management but also in an environment sustaining and enhancing personal faith and testimony; qualitative because our graduates need to have the best preparation in all of those things, to serve well not only in their business careers but particularly in their families, the church, and the communities in which they dwell.
We don’t know all of the good things that the family does, but we do see ripples throughout society of the tremendous positive influence of the Marriott family generally and of Bill and Dick specifically. We’re grateful to be their friends and associates.
Richard E. Marriott
We read in the papers today about the turmoil going on in the world. The situation we face today isn’t much different than what happened when my folks started their business. On 20 May 1927, Dad and Mom opened their root beer stand. That was eighteen months before the biggest stock market crash in history and before the Great Depression. The situation we face today isn’t pretty, but it doesn’t compare with what my twenty-eight-year-old father and my twenty-two-year-old mother faced in 1929: ten thousand bank failures, 30 percent unemployment, and manufacturing down to 52 percent.
How did they survive? Well, they survived by doing just what BYU teaches its students to do. They worked hard, they were creative, they found opportunities and seized them, and they were honest and caring in dealing with people. Dad and Mom worked really hard in that little root beer stand.
We don’t often hear about my mom; she was the chief financial officer of that $100-a-day root beer stand. She watched the waitresses to make sure they put the nickels in the cash register and not in their pockets. She washed the nickels at the end of the day, because they were all covered with root beer syrup. She put them in a brown paper bag and walked to the bank in the middle of the night in Washington, D.C., which I don’t recommend today.
When the weather turned bad, nobody wanted to buy ice cold root beer in a frosty mug. Mother went to the Mexican Embassy and got their recipe for hot tamales and chili, which she started cooking for the restaurant. For any of you who have eaten hot tamales, chili, and root beer, I don’t want to be in the same room with you. But she was there and working the whole time.
She sat with my dad on the street corner counting traffic, to see where the next restaurant should be. She helped influence the D.C. government. When my father went in to get a curb cut for the first drive-in restaurant east of the Mississippi, they’d never heard of such a thing. But my mother’s stepfather happened to be Reed Smoot, and I think he talked to a few guys on the city council, and Dad got his curb cut so they could start the drive-in restaurant. That was key to their future success.
When the depression was over, they had a thriving chain of restaurants. The drive-in concept was a smash hit. It provided great food: steak sandwiches for twenty cents and root beer for a nickel. My parents took a special interest in and provided great financial opportunities for their employees and associates. My dad was one of the first to offer profit sharing to employees, and it produced a lot of wealthy, loyal associates.
I wish my folks could be here today to see this fabulous school. They both valued education, but the ultimate success of the great business my folks founded was not due to their educational background, it was due to their character, attitude, and drive. Their parents and teachers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ingrained these qualities in my dad and mom from the time they were little kids.
These qualities are why BYU graduates are sought after by corporations throughout the world. That’s why the Marriott MBA program was voted No. 1 among regional schools by the Wall Street Journal in 2007 and ranked seventh among all U.S. business schools by BusinessWeek in February 2008. That’s why my family is so honored to have our name associated with this great school.
J.W. Marriott Jr.
My lifetime mentor and hero has been my father. But I can truthfully say I would not be here tonight, though, if it had not been for a wonderful teacher: Aaron Tracy. He was a teacher who became president of Weber College, and he was my dad’s mentor.
In 1921 when my father returned to Ogden from a mission in the eastern states, he found that his father had borrowed heavily on his sheep. My grandfather had paid $12–$14 a head, and they were worth only $3–$5; he was broke and would be working for the bank for the rest of his life. Dad knew that the only way out was an education. He had to learn how to study and how to think. He was willing to work hard, but he knew he couldn’t compete in the marketplace unless he had an education.
He needed a college degree and money to pay for it but didn’t have either one. He came home from his mission with $4 in his pocket. As for high school credits, he didn’t have any of those either. Every year he had to leave school to help on the farm or go to the Sierra Nevada range to herd his father’s sheep.
In Dad’s biography, Robert O’Brian wrote, “One afternoon, Bill went to see Aaron Tracy, and it was like finding a trail in the desert, a trail that would lead him out of the wasteland.” Tracy was an English professor at Weber. He always liked my dad, and he knew what a struggle it had been for him to get an education. He knew how important it was for him. He’d helped him get from sixth to seventh grade—I’m not sure my father ever went any further. Whatever education he got, he was self-taught.
But Aaron Tracy gave him an opportunity. He ignored his lack of a high school diploma and education and helped him earn his way and make up his schoolwork. Each day, Dad rose at 4 a.m. to study and to ride five miles to Ogden on his horse from Marriott Settlement and went to school. He had several jobs on campus, and when the day was over, he worked at the college bookstore until it closed. To add to this, he was elected student body president and was one of three returned missionaries the college hired to teach theology.
When he graduated from Weber, Aaron Tracy, who had been named president of the college, shook my father’s hand warmly and handed him his diploma. “Forward, my boy, forward,” he said. Tears came to my dad’s eyes. The first stage of the journey, perhaps the hardest, was behind him.
He worked the next two summers selling woolen goods to loggers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, entered the University of Utah, and graduated in June 1926. The next year he married my mother, and they opened the root beer stand. I often wonder what would have happened if Aaron Tracy and Weber College had not given my dad a chance. What would have happened if he found it too difficult and quit?
When our family was given the opportunity to help endow the business school at BYU, I knew my dad, who had passed away a few years earlier, would have been thrilled and honored. He was always anxious to help young people get an education because his education gave him confidence to leave the farm and start a small business. Our family will always be grateful to my father’s mentor, Aaron Tracy, and for the millions of teachers like him who continue to reach out, encourage, and lift up young men and women seeking an opportunity to learn, grow, and serve.
Our entire family is thrilled to see this wonderful new building completed, for we know that many more students will be given an opportunity, just like my dad was almost ninety years ago.
Gary C. Cornia
It’s difficult, maybe even impossible, to express the school’s gratitude to Bill and Donna Marriott and Dick and Nancy Marriott for all they have done. For the past twenty years, the university has benefited from the use of the Marriott name on its school of management. How we have benefited may not neatly fit into some structured equation or a cost-benefit analysis, but I freely challenge anyone to find names that exceed the dignity and the distinction associated with J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott.
Lacking words to express our gratitude, I would like to make two promises to the Marriott family. To make these two promises, I return to the August 2008 commencement exercise, where Elder Richard G. Scott spoke. In his talk he offered observations on how we define and find success. As we would expect, he quoted ancient and modern prophets. He also referenced an observation made by J. Willard Marriott Sr. I quote from Elder Scott, “I share an insight for success from an individual from humble background who achieved exceptional spiritual and material attainment in this life. . . . namely, J. Willard Marriott Sr. He said, ‘Work and prayer are the two greatest words in the English language.’”
This leads to the first promise from the students, staff, and faculty of the Marriott School. We promise that Marriott School graduates will know how to work. Our second commitment is: We promise that Marriott School graduates will understand the importance of prayer. When we achieve these two promises, we not only improve our own lives but also honor the Marriott name. Bill and Dick, thank you for all you have done for us. We pledge to work as hard as you work and to pray as earnestly as you pray.
President Henry B. Eyring
President Gordon B. Hinckley had a tremendous feeling for the widow’s mite. He was concerned that we would never use a gift to the Lord for any purpose except what he thought the Lord would have. At the same time, he had another reason to have people make donations: it was to bless them.
President Monson will often say when he’s asking someone for something, “Would you like to put a shine on your soul today?” When he does that, be ready. That is what’s happened here. I would like to express for the First Presidency gratitude to all of you who have worked, conceived of, and financed this wonderful addition to Brigham Young University.
I think, however, it’s important to say why I think you did it. You did it because you had faith, like the widow who was putting in her mite, that it would be what the Lord would want. You were confident that what’s done at Brigham Young University is what the Lord would have done to give young people the capacity to work, to produce, and to be valuable.
One of the reasons I love this institution is that I’ve seen my children blessed here; I’ve seen other people’s children blessed here. It’s for that reason we are so grateful for all you have done to help a place devoted to the children of our Heavenly Father, to lift them up and give them ideals and capacities.
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Photography by Braden Duncan, Mark Philbrick, Bradley Slade, and Jaren Wilkey
