{"id":14135,"date":"2022-12-08T16:12:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T21:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=14135"},"modified":"2026-01-20T12:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:19:22","slug":"100-years-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/100-years-hospitality\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Years of Hospitality Education on the Hill: Fascinating Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To celebrate the Nolan School\u2019s centennial, we offer a tantalizing tray of historical hors d\u2019oeuvres<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Cornellian, you\u2019re well aware that East Hill is home to one of the finest hospitality education programs on the planet. But did you know that the Statler is one of the state\u2019s top-rated hotels? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or that alums launched two iconic fast-food firms? Or that the Hotel School was name-checked in a hit movie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University traces its august history in hospitality education to the early 1900s\u2014an era of enormous growth in the industry\u2014when a group of hoteliers entreated Cornell administrators to develop a program to train hotel managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The first Hotelies. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Applications opened in spring 1922, and the program launched that fall\u2014housed in the College of Agriculture, within what was then the Department of Home Economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inaugural class boasted 21 students under a single professor: Howard Meek, then just 29, who later became the school\u2019s founding dean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Required classes included accounting, economics, engineering, culinary arts, nutrition, food preparation, and housekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hotel Administration became a school within the College of Home Economics in 1950 and an independent school four years later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fall 2021, following a $50 million gift from Peter Nolan \u201980, MBA \u201982, and Stephanie Perry Nolan \u201984, it was renamed<\/a> in honor of its benefactors.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Meat-cutting
Where\u2019s the beef? A meat-cutting class in the 1950s. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Throughout 2022, the Nolan School has been celebrating 100 years of hospitality education<\/a> on the Hill. As the year winds down, <\/em>Cornellians offers 20 amazingly true facts about the school and its alumni<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the first!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That pioneering fall 1922 undergraduate program gave Cornell bragging rights as the first university in the U.S. to offer a college degree in hospitality\u2014as well as the first in the world<\/em> to offer an undergraduate hospitality management degree program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Its students run a famous hospitality conference<\/strong>!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s called Hotel Ezra Cornell<\/a> (HEC), and the first\u2014which a prof had proposed as a student-operated \u201chotel for a day\u201d\u2014was held in Risley Hall in 1926. That event welcomed 350 guests (and netted a profit of $5.62). The tradition is still going strong, with the 98th conference set for April 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Students
Prepping for Hotel Ezra Cornell in 2007. (Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cornell\u2019s most generous benefactor is an alum<\/strong>!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For years, Charles \u201cChuck\u201d Feeney \u201956 (co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers) donated to his alma mater anonymously, only allowing his generosity to be publicly acknowledged in the late 1990s. By then, his Atlantic Philanthropies had given nearly $1 billion. In 2021, in honor of his 90th birthday, East Avenue\u2014which runs by the Statler Hotel and Statler Hall\u2014was renamed Feeney Way<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It won the heart of a legendary hotelier<\/strong>!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ellsworth M. Statler initially scoffed at university programs in hotel management\u2014but changed his mind after attending the second-ever HEC, where he sampled a dish so delectable that he went to the kitchen and demanded the recipe. Through the Statler Foundation, he and his wife, Alice, became two of the school\u2019s biggest benefactors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Neal
Alice Statler helps lay the cornerstone for Statler Hall in 1949. (Rare and Manuscript Collections)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It gets a shout-out in Dirty Dancing<\/em><\/strong>!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the 1987 hit movie, the owner of Kellerman\u2019s\u2014the Borscht Belt resort where the film is set\u2014proudly notes that his grandson, Neil, attends the \u201cCornell School of Hotel Management.\u201d Neil later leads the staff in the seasonal closing anthem, set to the same tune as the Cornell \u201cAlma Mater.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It had its own version of the Parisian Waiters\u2019 Race<\/strong>!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For many years, a highlight of HEC was the Waiters\u2019 Derby: students\u2014sporting white chef\u2019s caps, coats, and aprons\u2014sprinted 440 yards across campus, carrying bowls and pitchers of water on a tray. In April 2022, Hotelies revived the tradition<\/a> as part of the 100th anniversary kickoff, running down Ho Plaza while carrying trays of soup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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