Hilton, Conrad

Hilton, Conrad (Nicholson)

(born Dec. 25, 1887, San Antonio, N.M., U.S.—died Jan. 3, 1979, Santa Monica, Calif.) U.S. businessman, founder of one of the world's largest hotel organizations. As a boy he helped his father turn the family's adobe house into an inn for traveling salesmen. After his father's death in 1918 he bought several hotels in Texas, and by 1939 he was building, leasing, and buying hotels in California, New York, Illinois, and elsewhere. In 1946 the Hilton Hotels Corp. was organized; in 1948, as the business expanded overseas, the company was renamed Hilton International Co. Later diversification included a credit card company and a car-rental firm. His son Barron succeeded him as president in 1966.

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Hilton, Conrad (Nicholson) (1887–1979) hotel executive; born in San Antonio, N.M. After World War I service he began buying Texas hotels, graduating by the 1930s–40s to such grand establishments as Chicago's Palmer House (1945) and the Waldorf-Astoria, New York (1949). He formed Hilton Hotels Corporation (1946) and Hilton International (1948) and by the time of his death he controlled the largest hotel organization in the world.