Curtis Leroy Carlson (July 9, 1914 – February 19, 1999) was an American businessman and founder of
Carlson and
Radisson Hotel Group
Radisson Hospitality, Inc. ( trading as Radisson Hotel Group) is an American multi-national hospitality company. It started as a division of Carlson Companies, which owned Radisson Hotels, Country Inns & Suites and other brands. In 1994, Carls ...
.
Early life and education
Carlson was born in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
, Minnesota, the son of Charles and Leatha Carlson. Charles Carlson was a Swedish-American immigrant who arrived as a child in Minnesota; Leatha Carlson was born in
Downing, Wisconsin of a Danish father and Swedish mother. Curt began a career with
Procter and Gamble after earning a BA in Economics in 1937 from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
where he served as President, and Recruitment Chair for
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Sigma Phi Epsilon (), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College (now the University of Richmond), and its national headquarte ...
fraternity- MN Alpha chapter.
Career
Carlson began working for Procter & Gamble and then founded the
Gold Bond Stamp Company in 1938. Carlson used "Gold Bond Stamps", a consumer loyalty program based on trading stamps, to provide consumer incentive for grocery stores. Carlson was the first entrepreneur to develop a loyalty program for the grocery chain through the issuance of trading stamps. What began as a simple loyalty program for grocers in the Midwest grew into one of the largest service providers of frequent shopper / buyer programs across a variety of retail and hospitality sectors.
Carlson expanded his offerings by purchasing the downtown Minneapolis
Radisson Hotel in 1960 and building it into a national chain. He also acquired
TGI Fridays, Carlson Leisure Group and hundreds of other hospitality businesses.
The
Carlson School of Management at the