Eugene C. Eppley (April 8, 1884 – October 14, 1958) also known as Gene, was a hotel magnate in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. Eppley is credited with single-handedly building one of the most successful hotel empires, by the 1950s the largest privately owned hotel chain in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Career

Born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

, Eppley graduated from the

Culver Military Academy Culver Academies is a college preparatory boarding school located in Culver, Indiana, which is composed of three entities: Culver Military Academy (CMA) for boys, Culver Girls Academy (CGA), and the Culver Summer Schools and Camps (CSSC). Culver ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

in 1901. At the age of 19, he bought his first property, the McKinley Hotel in Canton, Ohio. At age 33, in 1917, he formed the

Eppley Hotel Company The Eppley Hotel Company was located in Omaha, Nebraska. At the time of its acquisition by the Sheraton Corporation in 1956, it had 22 properties, and it was the largest privately held hotel business in the United States. About Owned by hotel mag ...

. At its peak in the 1950s, the Eppley Hotel Company owned 22 hotels in six states. Eppley sold the company to

Sheraton Hotels Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Ce ...

in 1956 for $30 million (equivalent to $ million in ). Among many activities, he was a director of Sheraton Hotels, Mid-Continent Airlines, and the

Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakot ...

Foundation. After purchasing the

Hotel Fontenelle Hotel Fontenelle was an upscale hotel located at 1806 Douglas Street in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Designed by noted architect Thomas Rogers Kimball in the Late Gothic Revival style, it opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1983. It was named aft ...

in downtown Omaha in 1920, Eppley lived at his flagship until his death in 1958. Through those years, he contributed much to the civic life of the city and its educational institutions. :"He fought hard and held his own... and success was prompted by the love of the game. He was acquisitive and altruistic, proud and modest, but beneath it all humble and compassionate. His life seemed a struggle to keep his soft side from showing. He taught and inspired and disciplined... but exacted more of himself than any other. He was an organizer, leader, teacher, fighter, talker and giver. All of his facets added up to a rather heroic figure."

Philanthropy

Eppley was a renowned philanthropist, who gave primarily to educational, civic and medical research causes in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

and especially in Omaha. He was active in Omaha's social club

Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben The Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben Foundation is a 501(c)(3) civic and philanthropic organization in Omaha, Nebraska. History The organization was formed in 1895 in an attempt to keep the Nebraska State Fair in Omaha after receiving an ultimatum to provide ...

, which supported local philanthropy and was elected the King of the Court of Ak-Sar-Ben in 1932. His foundation was repeatedly the largest donor ever to several causes throughout the Midwestern United States. In an unusual event, in 1955 Eppley through his hotel company donated food to the nuclear test experiment conducted with civilian witnesses, known as

Operation Cue Operation Teapot was a series of 14 nuclear test explosions conducted at the Nevada Test Site in the first half of 1955. It was preceded by ''Operation Castle'', and followed by '' Operation Wigwam''. ''Wigwam'' was, administratively, a part of ...

. His and other private efforts were meant to demonstrate the ability of companies to ship and distribute food for "survivors" of a nuclear blast. Many witnesses were involved with civil defense organizations. Eppley also personally commissioned paintings by artist Grant Wood. He commissioned the well-known "Fruits of Iowa" grouping in 1932, for murals for four of his hotels in Midwestern cities. Several of the paintings of this series are now housed at

Coe College Coe College is a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associatio ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

."The Corn Room"
Retrieved 2/3/08.

Honors and legacy

* Omaha named

Eppley Airfield Eppley Airfield , also known as Omaha Airport, is an airport in the midwestern United States, located northeast of downtown Omaha, Nebraska. On the west bank of the Missouri River in Douglas County, it is the largest airport in Nebraska, wi ...

after him. * Several buildings in Omaha and in other Midwestern cities were named in his honor because of his foundation's major donations. * His philanthropy promoted education, children's welfare, civic advancement, and medical research in the Midwest.

Publications about Eppley

* Dalstrom, H.A. (1969) ''Eugene C. Eppley: his life and legacy.'' Lincoln, NE: Johnsen Publishing Company. * Dalstrom, H.A. "Eugene C. Eppley: His Life and Legacy," ''The Journal of American History. 57'';2. September 1970. pp. 466–468.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eppley, Eugene C. 1884 births 1958 deaths Businesspeople from Akron, Ohio Businesspeople from Omaha, Nebraska American hoteliers 20th-century American philanthropists Culver Academies alumni 20th-century American businesspeople