University of Houston Receives $10 Million Legacy Gift from Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
More than 50 years after hotel industry icon Conrad Hilton gifted $1.5 million to build the first hospitality school in Texas – the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management – his legacy of giving lives on today. The University has received a $10 million gift from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to help the college navigate challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. This legacy gift, which creates an unrestricted endowment, will help Hilton College fulfill its mission of training the next generation of hospitality leaders.
“Hilton College has become world-renowned as a leader in hospitality education and research, in no small part because of the Hilton Foundation’s philanthropy,” said UH President Renu Khator. “At every major stage of the college’s growth, the foundation has been there to support our hospitality students by funding critical facilities, programs, endowments and scholarships. On behalf of the university, I thank them for this truly remarkable gift, especially during this challenging time.”
Hilton College has been the beneficiary of the Hilton Foundation’s generosity with gifts in excess of $95 million. The foundation has distributed more than $1.6 billion in philanthropic grants for initiatives it supports around the world.
Starting with a class of 39 students and three adjunct professors in 1969, Hilton College today stands as a global leader in hospitality education with approximately 1,000 students from 54 countries, more than 30 full-time faculty members and six degree programs. The college has graduated more than 8,500 students who work in hospitality leadership positions around the world.
“We are proud to have partnered with the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston, now one of the leading hospitality institutions in the country, since its inception,” said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. “Through this grant, we look forward to supporting a new generation of students, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college, in becoming leaders in the hospitality sector.”
"… As we navigate an industry that has been devastated by the coronavirus, the timing of this insightful and generous gift could not be more critical, its commitment to our mission more relevant." Dean Dennis Reynolds...