School of Hospitality Business Management hosts annual Bellhop Feb. 28

Lisa and Chris Burdett at the annual Bellhop dinner.
Lisa and Chris Burdett (’90) supporting the School of Hospitality Business Management at the annual Bellhop dinner. Chris was inducted into the SHBM Hall of Fame in 2017.

The School of Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University will host its annual Bellhop — a celebration the hospitality program created in the 1940s that features dinner and dancing. The event also includes a celebration of new inductees into the SHBM Hall of Fame.

The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, in the CUB Senior Ballroom. The public is invited.

Tickets are $125. Registration is available through 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17 at the WSU Bellhop website or by calling 509‑335‑5766.

Hall of Fame inductees include:

  • Ivar Haglund (deceased)
    Founder
    Ivar’s Restaurants
  • Jan Hazelton (’83)
    Vice president—Europe and the Americas
    Kerzner International
  • Bill Maynard
    Founder and CEO
    The Effectiveness Institute
  • Tom Norwalk (’76)
    President and CEO
    Visit Seattle
  • Andy Olson (’74)
    Senior vice president
    Columbia Hospitality
  • Denney Rutherford (’66 deceased)
    Professor emeritus and Ivar Haglund Endowed Chair
    WSU School of Hospitality Business Management
  • S. Wright III (’76)
    Chairman and founder
    Seattle Hospitality Group

The Bellhop was a longstanding fundraiser that ran from the 1940s to the 1980s and was revived in 2017. Students turned the women’s gym into a nightclub for an annual dance, drawing attention to the hotel and restaurant program and raising money for their seniors to travel and tour some of the finest hotels in the country. Each year, the club selected a national bellman or hotel sales manager to honor and bring to Pullman for a series of events.

“The Bellhop honors the past, celebrates the present, and builds the future of the School of Hospitality Business Management,” said Bob Harrington, SHBM director.

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