Casparius Looks Back on Career that Shaped Industry, Brushed with History

Hilton College Professor adds Lifetime Achievement Award from Mexico to already full trophy case

Rodolfo “Rudy” Casparius, 89, displays the Lifetime Achievement Award he received from the Confederation of National Tourism Associations of Mexico. He has had a storied career and has taught classes in advanced lodging and hotel operations at the Hilton College since 1998. Recently retired from teaching, he still maintains office hours for the many students who seek his counsel and experience.

HOUSTON, February 12, 2009 — Rodolfo “Rudy” Casparius sits in his office at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston, filled with the trappings of enormous success and brushes with some of history’s most towering figures. From a thin black case lined with velvet, he gingerly removes a large gold medal, emblazoned with the national crest of Mexico.

“They don’t give these to just anybody,” Casparius said with a twinkle in his eye. “You have to earn something like this.”

The medal is a Lifetime Achievement Award, the “Presidente Aleman,” given to him in October 2008 by the Confederation of National Tourism Associations of Mexico. It honors Casparius’ contribution to the tourism industry of Mexico, which is difficult to overstate. Casparius has received praise and awards from presidents and kings, and has been called “a legend of Mexican tourism.”

Casparius, now 89, a natural storyteller, has no more impressive yarn in his bag than his own story. It has the feel of many such tales of starting small, of climbing life’s ladder from the bottom rungs to the top of one’s profession. It contains many of the familiar elements, including a plucky youth who gets an early break while down on his luck and a benevolent mentor who sees something special — the iconic Conrad Hilton, no less.

But it also includes brushes with history, and harrowing tales that involve a country on the brink of war — Germany before World War II — and of revolution, that of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who came to power while Casparius was working at the Havana Hilton, which became one of the key settings of the revolution. Of late he has been in a reflective mood, though he continues to shape the contours of the hospitality industry. He writes a weekly column for La Opinion, a Spanish language newspaper in Los Angeles that is among the most widely read in the country — over the years he has written some 4,000 columns for the paper. He has also written five novels and given lectures around the globe. And he has brought his expertise to the classroom, serving as a lecturer and director of Latin American Studies at the Hilton College, one of the top-ranked hospitality programs in the world.

“When you are so in love with an industry, like I am, you care for the people who will come after you,” Casparius said. “If you have been there, doing the work, making improvements … you want to see people follow you who are even better than you are. I’ve worked at 27 hotels, so it may be hard to do, but there you go.”

Casparius certainly has plenty to share, not only about the hospitality industry, but also the role it has played, both in his own life, and in history. As a child, he left Mexico City to study in Berlin, during the period between the two World Wars that tore apart the city and the country. There he learned German and the values of hard work, discipline and organization. But as news of an impending war reached Mexico in the late 1930s, the Mexican government ordered its citizens, such as Casparius, out of the country and back home to safety.

After returning home, he attended the Universidad Iberoamericana, graduating in the first generation of business administration graduates in the country.

But work was scarce, so Casparius saved up the money he had earned from odd jobs and went to the Big Apple. America’s first city was just emerging from World War II, and there too, Casparius found it hard to secure a job. Casparius was down to his last few dollars. On a rainy afternoon in 1945, he ducked into the Pennsylvania Hotel on 7th Avenue and 34th Street, a Hilton hotel near Penn Station.

“I told the manager I was looking for work and spoke English, Spanish and German,” Casparius said. “He said ‘That’s great, but all I have for you is a job washing dishes.’ I said that was fine. Money is money.”

After accepting the job, he worked his way up quickly through the ranks at the Pennsylvania Hotel, and word of his talents and work ethic soon reached the right ears. The Pennsylvania went through a series of management changes, ultimately becoming the Statler Hilton.

“A buddy of mine came over to my office and said ‘Mr. Hilton is on the phone,’” Casparius said. “I thought it was just another prank.”

It wasn’t a prank.

Conrad N. Hilton himself had seen something in young Rudy, and encouraged him to enroll in the company’s management training program. After completing the two-year program, he became a rising star in the Hilton organization, and soon found himself back in Latin America as the company’s “go-to-guy” for launching new properties in the region.

Casparius was the first general manager of Hilton hotels in Mexico City, Panama, Puerto Rico and even Rome. But perhaps his biggest challenge came when he was sent to Havana, Cuba — in 1958, the height of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro and his communist regime to power. He was there to assist Arthur Elminger, senior vice president of Hilton International, and general manager Pepe Menendez.

Before the coup, Casparius was setting up the Havana Hilton and made contacts with President Fulgencio Baptiste. Casparius heard rumblings and could feel “something in the air.” Then on New Year’s Eve, Casparius heard that Baptiste had fled the country. Three days later, Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries rolled triumphantly into the capital city after conquering the countryside.

“The bombs started exploding, the armies began to march, and everything changed,” Casparius said. “The security forces left, so we were in a hotel without a government. Then of course, Castro decided to come to the Hilton.”

Castro used the Hilton as an early base of operations, and Casparius was there for all of it. Today, the reports Casparius sent to Hilton corporate management can be found in the archives of the Hilton College, among thousands of other historic items from the annals of hospitality.

Casparius emerged safely and continued his career, managing the Guadalajara Hilton and the Acapulco Hilton. It was during his tenure in Guadalajara that he was contacted by Westin International to become senior vice president for Latin America. He left the Hilton after 12 years with the company. He would later work for AeroMexico, a Mexican airline, at its office in Houston. He also worked with Fiesta Americana International, which operates luxury resorts and hotels throughout Latin America. He retired in 1992 but continued to write and serve on honorary and advisory boards, until he was asked in 1998 to join the ranks of academia by Allen T. Stutts, who was then the dean of the Hilton College.

Casparius has taught advanced lodging and hotel operations, and he also served for five years as general manager of the Hilton University of Houston Hotel and Conference Center. He is also a past director of the Hospitality Industry Diversity Institute, one of the many industry centers and institutes headquartered at the College.

“It’s such an honor to have someone of Rudy’s caliber at our College,” said John T. Bowen, dean of the Hilton College. “His impact on the tourism industry in Latin America is without peer, and the advice and expertise he’s able to offer students is absolutely priceless. Talk to him for only a few minutes and you’ll learn something you didn’t know about the industry. He’s a tremendous presence, a great resource.”

And Casparius has been instrumental in creating the Hilton College’s partnership with CESSA University in Mexico City, the country’s premier hospitality education center. The university hosts one of the Hilton College’s popular study abroad programs, which also include the University of Angers in France and the Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute in Hong Kong.

Casparius no longer teaches courses at the Hilton College, but he still maintains office hours for the many students who seek his counsel. Recently, a student approached him with a question about an internship in Cancun. Casparius laughed.

“Ah, Cancun,” he said. “I am one of the pioneers. When I first went there to buy the land for the Hotel Camino Real, there was a wonderful beach and nothing else. On all the area, where now there are close to two million people, there were only about 150 people. “Now you know the rest of the story.”

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom

Contact:
Barrett Goldsmith
713-743-1509
bgoldsmith@uh.edu