Forty years ago, Bruce White founded White Lodging in Northwest Indiana with a single hotel and built the company into one of the largest and most respected hospitality companies in the U.S. A new book, “Hospitalitarian: Bruce White’s Legacy,” documents and shares the stories that built White Lodging from a small hospitality company into a player on a national scale.
White passed away in 2023 from cancer, leaving behind a company that had never known anyone else at the helm.
The biography was researched and authored by Kathi Ann Brown, who was the co-author of two books with J.W. (Bill) Marriott Jr., chairman emeritus, Marriott International, including “Spirit to Serve” and “Without Reservations.”
Bill Marriott authored the foreword of the new book, which was published by Spectrum Creative and is now available on most online platforms, including Amazon.
“We began documenting the company’s history and Bruce’s entrepreneurial journey to help ensure that every associate at the company—now and in the future—knew about White Lodging’s founder and his expectation for the company and our people, including our culture and the relentless pursuit of excellence for each other, our guests and our owners,” said Beth White. “As Kathi researched and assembled the manuscript, we saw that the stories and lessons could appeal to a much broader audience, so we decided to pull it all together into a book.”
The book is summed up in a quote from Bill Marriott, who was a long-time friend of White: “You couldn’t be a Marriott franchisee without knowing and benefiting from the knowledge, insights and friendship of Bruce White. He wanted us all to win: Marriott, White Lodging and hundreds of his franchisee peers. If that meant rattling our cages or pushing us to reconsider our policies, so be it. His heart was in the right place and his integrity was unquestioned.”
White was a self-proclaimed lifelong learner and valued education as a core value—something his grandmother instilled in him. The White Family supports a variety of education-based and community organizations for which this book will serve as a foundation for sharing Bruce White’s legacy. This includes those involved in Big Shoulders Fund and Purdue University, where he is the namesake of the Bruce White Undergraduate Institute within the Mitch Daniels School of Business and White Lodging – J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue University.
“There are only a select few in any generation that have the combination of intelligence, street smarts and firmly held values that Bruce had,” said Mitch Daniels, former Indiana governor and president emeritus, Purdue University. “His relentless pursuit of excellence across every aspect of his life—personal, professional and philanthropic—is something we hope to instill in every student at Purdue University. And thanks to the generosity of the White Family, we are well on our way.”
Any income from the sale of the book or documentary distribution will be matched with donations to education initiatives in Northwest Indiana from the White Family foundations.
A film version of the book, narrated by television host Mike Rowe, is in the works and expected to be available to the public later this summer.
