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Deborah Marriott Harrison on Marriott’s culture of putting people first~
And my grandfather started it by making a sign he put over the kitchen doors in the Hot Shops that says, “If you take care of the employee, the employee will take care of the customer and the customer will come back again and again.” And we really pride ourselves in taking care of our associates.
Andy Ockershausen: This is Our Town. And I’m so delighted to have in one of the most important people in representing the families and I could probably, the number one family in Washington was the Marriott family, and I’m so delighted to have Debbie Marriott Harrison on Our Town. Welcome to Our Town, Debbie.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Thank you Andy. I’m delighted to be here.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, our relationship, my relationship personally goes back to Marriott for many, many years before you were born, probably. Because being a big part of Our Town growing up at WMAL and Channel 7 and the Washington Star is my background, and you know what the Star was like when you were growing up in Our Town and-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah, my brothers used to deliver the paper.
Andy Ockershausen: I say, right. It was Our Town. It was a small town. What’s happened now has been an explosion. But thank you for remembering that there is a WMAL that was in Our Town and thank you for what you have done for the Marriott Corporation and particularly when you worked at … your story was working at the Key Bridge Marriott?
Marriott’s First Two Hotels – Twin Bridges and Key Bridge Hotels – A Bit of Our Town History
Deborah Harrison: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: How many years?
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Oh, just one summer after I had finished my freshman year.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, you just did it in the summer time.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yes. I just did it for the summer and that was our second hotel and it is still our oldest hotel in our portfolio because the first hotel was the Twin Bridges Hotel.
Andy Ockershausen: Do I remember that well.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. Opened in 1957 near the 14th Street Bridge and we sold that in the late 80s and there’s nothing on that lot right now. It’s an empty lot.
Andy Ockershausen: The Windjammer Club.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yes, The Windjammer Club. And-
Andy Ockershausen: It was a bottle club I remember that well.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Sirloin and Saddle, the restaurant.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, the motel opened up where it used to be a national airport and before national airport there was another field there-
Deborah Harrison: Right. Hoover.
Andy Ockershausen: Were Marriott had a catering business.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yup. Hoover Field. And the Pentagon is, and the Pentagon is there now.
Andy Ockershausen: And yeah. Right. And so that was the beginning of the catering business, but the hotel business, your grandfather opened that hotel, I remember it had a sign. It was the only sign I’ve ever seen on the 14th Street Bridge and the Washington signs, at the exit to get to the Marriott Hotel. Can you … you were too young to know that.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: I don’t remember that. You’re right. I don’t remember. That’s really neat.
Andy Ockershausen: There was some political pressure to get that done. But it was done. The only motel that was highlighted on the bridge leaving town, was the Marriott Twin Bridges. And there were twin bridges and then Marriott got into the hotel business and then opened up in Rosslyn. Was that your next big hotel?
Deborah Marriott Harrison: The next one, two years later was the one was Key Bridge in Rosslyn overlooking Georgetown and the river.
Andy Ockershausen: And it was a real, a motor hotel. It was a small structure.
Marriott Started Out in the Hotel Business with Motor Hotels
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Correct. It was a motor hotel because back then Eisenhower just finished our freeway system and everyone was jumping in their station wagons taking their kids to see America. And so we started with motor hotels and we didn’t even have a front desk. We had that little booth that you see in the old pictures and the little man in the booth would check you in and it was $8 a night for a room rate. And then he’d charge a dollar extra per person in the car. And then you’d follow the Bellman on the bicycle. He had a sign on the back of his bicycle that said, “Follow me!” And you’d follow him to your room and he’d help you check in.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, immediately it was, it was, in its … a transition time for Our Town and for what happened with Hoover Field and National Airport.
Deborah Harrison: Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And the Marriott, but to do that hotel and the idea that now you go to a little window and they give you food, but in those days you checked in at the little window.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: That’s right. That’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: You never did this at Key Bridge though, that was-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: No, that was at Key Bridge and Twin Bridges.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, they did them at both, huh?
Deborah Harrison: Both. Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And that was the start of the empire and getting in the hotel business.
True Partners – J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Started with a Nine Stool Root Beer Stand
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. For a long time we were a restaurant company, so my grandparents started the company in 1927 with a nine stool root beer stand on 14th Street Northwest. And you couldn’t even fit a table in that little place. And they knew they’d go out of business if they didn’t add hot food items to the menu when it got cold. So my mother … my grandmother knocked on the Mexican Embassy door. She spoke fluent Spanish and the chef taught her how to make tamales and chili.
Andy Ockershausen: Hot Shop!
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. And she, there wasn’t a kitchen in that first little root beer stand. So she made all the food and she walked it over to the restaurant everyday. So she was our first chef and she was our first accountant, and she would collect all the nickels that had been sitting on the counter all day and wash the sticky syrup off of them from the root beer, put them in a brown paper bag and deposited them into the bank every night when she went home and entered them into her ledger. So she was our first chef, our first accountant, and our first interior decorator for our hotels.
Andy Ockershausen: Alice made it all happen.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Alice was a true partner with my grandfather.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Building this business.
Andy Ockershausen: They had a wonderful relationship.
Deborah Harrison: Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And they both were raised in Utah and moved to Washington?
How J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Came to Our Town and Hot Shops
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Correct. They got married and the next day they, after they got married, they jumped in their Model T Ford and drove to Washington. It took them 11 days because there were dirt roads back then. So that became a Hot Shop and the Hot Shop became a local favorite and a pretty good … big restaurant chain in the Mid-Atlantic. Even had them in the toll plazas going up 95, between here and Philly and New York.
Andy Ockershausen: Used to have one on Pennsylvania Turnpike, way back.
Deborah Harrison: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: But, so the Marriott story is really a truly homegrown story for Our Town.
Deborah Harrison: It is.
Andy Ockershausen: Away from the government. The government did not make Our Town.
Deborah Harrison: That’s right, we were one of the first-
Andy Ockershausen: I mean Marriott.
Marriott – One of the First Big Businesses in Our Town
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Big businesses here. You know, when we became bigger, we were one of the first businesses because this wasn’t a business town. It was a government town.
Andy Ockershausen: Of course. And then gradually, he’s into the hotel business.
Deborah Harrison: Correct.
Andy Ockershausen: It wasn’t a full jump in yet. Right? You still, you were still operating the two small places.
Growing the Hotel Business
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Right. It took us 12 years to get to 10 hotels. So in 1969 we had 10 hotels, and then it took us until 19 … let’s see, when did we have 100? 1981 to get to a 100 hotels and then 2007 to get to 3000 hotels and now we have 7,000 hotels.
Andy Ockershausen: All started with root beer.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: All started with root beer.
Andy Ockershausen: Had a cold root beer off the hot street cars up on 14th Street.
Deborah Harrison: That’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: I remember that story so well. And I want to talk to you more about the Marriott family, what they did for, for Our Town. And this is Andy Ockershausen talking to Debbie Marriott Harrison. I say Debbie, I like it.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Just say Debbie.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
Andy Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen and one of the most important people in the Marriott family to me because she’s here with us. And her dad was a very special friend to the Police Boys and Girls Club, for them, we were doing business as WMAL Radio, and they stood tall for so many reasons. And your grandfather and grandmother came to all of our public events and provided so much support for Police Boys and Girls Club.
Marriott’s Philanthropy in Our Town
Deborah Marriott Harrison: That’s so great. And you know, our family foundation, The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation is still very important to our family and we still contribute to the Boys and Girls Club. And we do a lot of contributions to the DC area, to Social Services and other organizations in the DC area.
Andy Ockershausen: And have been for many years, oh, I know that so much and it would be so much fun at these important events. Alice would come with Mr. Marriott, and to make them enjoy, if they enjoy themselves, I tell you that. I remember it vividly.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: They did.
Andy Ockershausen: And your dad did too when he got involved in it. And Sam Hoof who worked for WMAL, he used to bring all of the people to Marriott from the National Football League. He was helping them around the country.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah, he did. He got great big accounts and then he was in charge of all of our hotel openings, when back-
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, I remember he-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: When we were not opening as many hotels as we are now. Now we’re opening up-
Andy Ockershausen: He couldn’t do it now.
Today, Marriott Opens a Hotel Every 14 Hours Around the World
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Now we’re opening a hotel every 14 hours around the world for the next three years.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s incredible.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Which is amazing. But back then-
Andy Ockershausen: It all started in a little Hot Shop.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: When it was, you know, a couple every couple of years, then he was in charge of all the openings and we made them all big deals.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, he traveled a lot. And I know the Mr. Marriott really loved to have him around and he was a big supporter of the op and a big supporter of Our Town too, because Sam was tied in with the Redskins, tied us in and tied us in with Marriott. But there was no stopping, now the thing you told me they’re surprised about is your dad. You grew up with him in the Kenwood.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: But you had that big house out in Avenel, but you didn’t live there.
Growing Up, Creating a Life with Family, and Having a Career in Our Town
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Nope. Didn’t live there. My parents raised us in a normal house and they didn’t build it until we were all gone.
Andy Ockershausen: And that was a mansion. It was huge-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Well, it’s not that huge.
Andy Ockershausen: We had parties there from the golf club when we did the Kemper Open, we’d use Mr. Marriott’s place for parties. Now, how about, tell me about your career with the company because you’ve been working with them since you were going to college.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Well I had an interesting career. I worked in the summers. I worked at two different hotels. One was at Key Bridge here locally and then we moved to Dallas for a summer when I was married and I was pregnant with my twins and I worked at the front desk there as well. I also worked at our old corporate headquarters for a summer when I was in high school in accounts receivable. And then I started having kids. I have five children, so I took a hiatus for 27 years and I became a soccer mom. And when my youngest, my daughter was a junior in high school, I had the opportunity to go back to work at corporate headquarters and I had the opportunity to run our Government Affairs Office. So I became one of the lobbyists for the company and that was really fun. But it was a really brave decision I made because I was just a soccer mom and it was a really scary thing for me to go back to work.
But it worked out great and I loved it. I always loved politics and was a history major and I loved the company. And so I learned the issues and it was a real honor to be able to go down to the Hill and meet the senators and the congressmen and, and represent our workers that we have, our associates, because we have now, we have over 750,000 people that wear our Marriott name badge every day.
And in the United States-
Andy Ockershausen: How can you-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: In the United States there’s about 220,000, and so it was really important for us to be able to lobby for HR issues and things that affect our associates.
Andy Ockershausen: Well it’s always been an employee-friendly company because I know … does the Pete Plamondon –
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yes, I know Pete very well. And he still has some Roy Rogers franchises.
Andy Ockershausen: Yes he does, the Roy Rogers!
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: But they were so good to the employees, even the bellhop, I mean the car hop-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: That’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: The people working in the Hot Shop. They were all Marriott people.
Marriott’s People First Culture
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Well my grandparents and my father really set up our culture and our culture is a put people first culture.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: And my grandfather started it by making a sign he put over the kitchen doors in the Hot Shops that says, “If you take care of the employee, the employee will take care of the customer and the customer will come back again and again.” And we really pride ourselves in taking care of our associates.
Hot Shops Hot Fudge Cakes | Mighty Moe’s, Onion Rings and Orange Freezes | Pappy Parker Fried Chicken
Andy Ockershausen: Oh … Ken and I were just talking about growing up in Washington. The Hot Shop was what we did on weekends. That’s what everybody-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: That’s what we did too.
Andy Ockershausen: My first ice cream cake was Hot Shop-
Ken Hunter: Hot fudge cake.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: Hot fudge cake.
Ken Hunter: Never been duplicated.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Best thing ever.
Ken Hunter: Bring back the hot fudge cake. Bring back the hot fudge cake!
Deborah Marriott Harrison: I agree. And the Mighty Moe’s, and the onion rings and the orange freezes.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, yeah. Mighty Moe’s came later.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah, and the orange freezes.
Andy Ockershausen: Pappy Parker.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. Pappy Parker Fried Chicken.
Andy Ockershausen: Remember the fried chicken guy?
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yep. That was awesome.
Andy Ockershausen: Debbie, I remember the agency that created that Pappy Parker deal and I remember about you had one of your kitchens up on 13th and Rittenhouse by Roosevelt High School.
Marriott’s Old Commissary 13th and Rittenhouse
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. That was the commissary where all our food was stored, and the trucks would go out of there to take them to all the Hot Shops and to the pantries.
Andy Ockershausen: That was way before they got huge.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: That was a very small operation. I remember Mark Evans taking me up there. I’ll get back to that. We’re talking to Debbie Harrison, Debbie Marriott Harrison about one of my favorite subjects, the wonderful Marriott family. This is Our Town.
Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
Andy Ockershausen:This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town. Having a conversation about the Marriott family and the impact they have made on Our Town and a big part of Our Town, and particularly with the shrine out in Silver Springs, or I’d say Maryland now.
J. Willard Marriott Instrumental in Land Acquisition for the Washington DC Temple Located in Silver Spring, Maryland
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Kensington, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: The monument is a huge part of Our Town.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Right.
Andy Ockershausen: And it’s the most easy to recognize out of all the monuments on the Mall.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Right. It’s the Mormon Temple or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Temple and it’s been there since 1974 and it’s been very important to our family because my grandfather was instrumental in getting the land and it’s in such a beautiful spot that when you come around the Beltway, especially when you’re going from east to west, from Silver Spring into DC, it just sits there right in front of you and it looks like it’s floating.
Andy Ockershausen: Spectacular.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: And it’s just beautiful and it’s really exciting because they’re renovating it right now. But in March of 2020 it should be open to the public for close to three months and everybody in the city can come and go to it and see what’s inside and then it will be closed again.
Andy Ockershausen: There will be a line up, it’ll be a line up of cars into Virginia.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Right. But I have-
Andy Ockershausen: To get to it.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: I have a cute story when I was a junior in high school when it opened and for a few years as you come around from Silver Spring, there’s a train trestle there, and somebody had spray painted on it, “Surrender. Dorothy,” because it reminds them of the Wizard of Oz and the Emerald City, and I always thought that was really cute. But it is a beautiful landmark.
Andy Ockershausen: Big part of Our Town.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: It’s a big landmark in Washington.
Andy Ockershausen: It’s a fabulous, fabulous mark for the church too.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: And it’s good. It works both ways.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yep.
J. Willard Marriott and President Eisenhower
Andy Ockershausen: Now there’s so much that, that I wanted to ask you about the old days of a Hot Shop and how you got the President Eisenhower, I knew about that one by the airport. I know that because that, that was one of his accomplishments too with your grandfather. They were quite close.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: They were, they were good friends.
Andy Ockershausen: And they, they did a lot of things together. But mostly for Our Town and what the family has done. And even though you’re a worldwide organization, you’ve always considered this your headquarters. Your town.
Home and Business Headquarters are Washington DC and Montgomery County
Deborah Marriott Harrison: That’s right. That’s right. We feel like Washington, DC and Montgomery County is our home. We’ve all lived in Montgomery County-
Andy Ockershausen: Raised your children in Montgomery County.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Raised our children here. My brothers went to St. Albans, I went to National Cathedral School. My Dad and uncle went to St. Albans. So we gravitate towards the city. We support the Kennedy Center. My grandmother was on the first board of the Kennedy Center, raised money for the theater there.
Andy Ockershausen: 1971.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: And we feel like we’re true Washingtonians. We’re really rare, because my dad was born here and raised here, still lives here. I was born in the city, born and raised here. So were my brothers, and we love the city. We think it’s the greatest city on the earth.
Andy Ockershausen: And you made such an impact. And as I say, it’s really a company, if there is a company town, it’s Marriott, because the impact you have made as a family has been terrific. And what is your uncle? Is it Dick?
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Dick, yep.
Andy Ockershausen: Dick is your uncle.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Dick Marriott. Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And you know, in the days when we were, we were at WMAL, we knew all the people there and did a lot of promotions and so forth with all the openings because of him. I think Paul Berry did some work for you at one time.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: I think so.
Andy Ockershausen: When you open a hotel in Washington, or you’re re-opening the Marriott.
Debbie Marriott Harrison – DC College Access Program Board Member
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Well, DC has been so good to us that we want to give back to them as well. And as I said earlier, we do a lot with organizations in DC and help do as much as we can for those organizations, for children, especially for education. I’m on the board of DC College Access Program that Don Graham started.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: And it has doubled the number of a DC public school kids going to college and tripled the number of kids that have graduated from college and it’s changed their lives. Most of these kids are the first kids ever that have ever gone to college in their families and it’s really remarkable. So we, we do a lot, especially in the education.
Andy Ockershausen: This is your town.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah, it is. It’s Our Town. We want to give back.
Andy Ockershausen: Now, tell me about your, your own schedule. Do you travel a lot? Do you still go around the country addressing your groups or-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: I travel-
Andy Ockershausen: Have a relationship?
Travelling and Favorite Activity – Interviewing Dad
Deborah Marriott Harrison: I travel a little bit and I go to some of the JAMS conferences and conferences. I also, my favorite thing to do is interview my dad.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, my.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: He retired, he retired seven years ago when he turned 80 but retirement for him is working 50 to 60 hours a week. He still visits 150 hotels a year. He still holds his staff meetings and he hates to give speeches, so he has me interview him. So I follow him around and I get them to tell all these great stories because there’s always lessons in stories.
Andy Ockershausen: You’re not surprising me because I know a lot of people that know your dad. He wouldn’t do what you’re doing here. This is not Bill Marriott. He’s not going to do Our Town. But you would. And this means so much to me.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Well, it’s really fun. It’s the cherry on the sundae that I get to work so closely with my dad.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my God. I’m sure it, he’s a great guy. When he used to check hotels, boy he was, he was something else in the hotel business but he was a legend, and had his name on the door.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And he wanted it to look like window.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Remember those old commercials where he sits there and he says, “That’s our name on the door. I take this very personally. We have to do a good job for our customers.”
Andy Ockershausen: And he meant it.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yes, he did.
Andy Ockershausen: And I remember your grandfather made a couple of special restaurants like one at Key Bridge. No-
Restaurants – The View and Sirloin & Saddle
Deborah Marriott Harrison: The View was at Key Bridge, yeah.
Andy Ockershausen: 14th Street Bridge? What was that restaurant? Fabulous steak house.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Sirloin & Saddle.
Andy Ockershausen: Boy, that was great.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And then going there was a part of growing up for me in the city because … the world’s changed. They no make steak places. Steak places like, like Sirloin & Saddle.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: It was really fun.
Andy Ockershausen: Building is gone now.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah, it is.
Andy Ockershausen: Sad.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: But Marriott’s still with us but you don’t travel as much as you used to, and your husband still works for the company?
Husband Ron Harrison – 37 Years with Company
Deborah Marriott Harrison: He works for, my husband’s worked for the company for 37 years and he is now in charge of all of our architecture and construction and design. He’s been a GM at four hotels. He’s-
Andy Ockershausen: He grew up in the business.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: He was in charge of all the hotels in Canada. He … yeah, he married me and he started working with the company.
Andy Ockershausen: He gave up Canada, for you.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: No, no. He worked for Canada as part of his work for the company.
Andy Ockershausen: He did?
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. He helped develop a lot of hotels up there and was in charge of all the hotels in Canada for a while. He’s done a lot of different jobs for the company, so.
Andy Ockershausen: But he grew up, he knows the company well, of course.
Deborah Harrison: Yeah, yes.
Andy Ockershausen: And your mom and dad are in good health-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: They’re doing great.
Andy Ockershausen: And they’re going strong. And I know your dad gets around quite a bit. I saw him at a Washingtonian luncheon the last time I talked to him and it was just as fresh as it was 40 years ago. But how are things at the club? And they knew about our camp and-
Deborah Harrison: Yep.
Bill Marriott Outfitted Kitchen at Boys and Girls Club Special Camp
Andy Ockershausen: You know, with the Boys and Girls Club had a special camp. And Marriott gave us the kitchen equipment. We re-equipped that place with kitchen equipment because of your dad.
Deborah Harrison: That’s awesome. I didn’t know that. That’s really great.
Andy Ockershausen: We’re talking about 50-60 years ago.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah, he’s going strong. Bless his heart. He’s going strong. He’s doing really well.
Andy Ockershausen: He just gave it away. Well, Debbie it has been such a pleasure to have you, that to find out everything’s going so great with your company and the names I bring up of people. Like I saw his picture, Roger Dow the other day.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yeah. Roger’s in charge of US travel now. He left off the marketing and he’s, he’s doing great work for us to get more people into the United States, to travel here and to give us more business.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, Roger was a big, was a big friend of ours back in the days with Pete and Roger and, and all the people we knew beyond the Marriotts, the people down the line, they were always such good citizens. Everybody we ever did business with.
Deborah Harrison: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Andy Ockershausen: And thank you for being here and thank you for Marriott. And thank you for Alice and all she did to keep her husband straight and working hard. And I know their relationship was very, very tight right to the end.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: That’s right. They were great. They were a great couple, great supporters of each other.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely. They helped each other along the way.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: And would you please, I know that this is the great world for you now, but I wish you would wish it to your mom and dad. I said before, this is not a interview, this is a conversation because I keep thinking of all the wonderful memories I have of Marriott and what they have meant to Our Town and thinking about business-wise, what they did for our broadcast company and then for our camps and our kids, what Marriott has done for our kids is unbelievable.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: And we hope to continue to still do that.
Andy Ockershausen: And you will, I’m sure you will.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: It’s been a great conversation and please give our best to all the Marriott people there. There will never be another company like Marriott.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. That’s very kind of you.
Andy Ockershausen: It’s a fabulous place. Debbie-
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Thank you very much.
Andy Ockershausen: Marriott Harrison, thank you so much for being on Our Town. God bless you and everything in the Marriott company has done.
Deborah Marriott Harrison: Thank you so much.
Announcer: You’ve been listening to Our Town, Season 5, a Hometown favorite with your host Andy Ockershausen. New Our Town episodes are released every Tuesday. Special thanks to Ken Hunter, our technical director, and to WMAL Radio in Washington DC. Follow Our Town on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven’t yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and don’t forget to rate and review our podcast. Join us next Tuesday for another Our Town conversation. Thanks so much for listening.
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