U’s SHB Marks 75th Year With Literary Effort

NEW YORK— As part of its Diamond Anniversary celebration, the School of Hospitality Business of Michigan State University and its alumni association have published an encompassing 75-year history, The Legacy of the Leader, that pulls together the history of the school as well as the industry from 1927 to 2002. At a fete at the Waldorf-Astoria Saturday night, Dr. Ronald Chichy, director and professor at SHB and the alumni association’s secretary/treasurer, was talking up the tome before an enthusiastic audience of alumni and current students. “We did it by decades,” Chichy told HOTEL BUSINESS®, noting the hefty book, filled with historic photography— some 300 images— shows the growth of the industry and highlights many legendary hoteliers. “For example, we have a complete background on Mr. Statler [of Statler Hotels fame],” said Chichy. Issues and events throughout the decades also prove interesting, such as the control of vermin in the 1920s, the beginnings of air conditioning in the 1930s, the war years of the 1940s, “skyscraper” hotels, the appearance by Conrad Hilton at Michigan State College in the 1950s, the emergence of women as leaders in the industry. “It’s a great background of the hotel industry,” Chichy said. “The story for us is about our people: our alumni, our faculty, our students.” It includes anecdotal events as well, such as when conductor Arthur Fiedler visited MSU and an alumni was a bellman at the University’s on-campus hotel Kellogg Center. The bellman, after checking him in, was given back-stage tickets for the conductor’s concert. Chichy added he hoped the 400-page book would help in terms of a recorded history of the industry. “It’s an incredible collection of 75 years of history,” said Paul Smith, president of the SHB alumni association and owner of the Hitching Post Inn Resort & Conference Center. “There’s very few places in the country where you can document one of the leading schools in the country. Anytime you have a significant event in your life, or in your business or in your school— such as the 75th anniversary— it’s time to reflect. It’s time to look at the past, plan for the future, and celebrate. And that’s what this book is.” —Stefani C. O’Connor