PULLMAN, Wash. – Larry Culver, retired hotel developer and manager, was honored Feb. 25 with the Washington State University Alumni Association Alumni Achievement Award in recognition of his career as an innovative leader in the hospitality industry and his service to WSU.
He has been a member of the WSU Foundation’s Board of Governors/Directors, Board of Trustees, National Campaign Cabinet and many committees. He has served on boards for the Carson College of Business, School of Hospitality Business Management (SHBM) and golf course. He helped connect WSU and the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, which provided $1.5 million to renovate the hospitality teaching kitchen and dining room in the business college.
Culver graduated from WSU in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant administration. He received the foundation’s Outstanding Volunteer Service Award in 1999 and the Weldon B. “Hoot” Gibson Distinguished Volunteer Award in 2013.
After managing hotels and restaurants throughout the U.S., he helped found Innco, a developer and manager of hotels in the Midwest. He later founded InnVentures, a hotel development and management company with Marriott and Hilton properties in the western U.S.
Culver and his wife established the Larry and Vickie Culver Hospitality Fund to help support a position in the SHBM that is a liaison between the school and the hospitality industry. They are donors to student scholarships and to the WSU Samuel and Patricia Smith Teaching and Learning Endowment.
The WSUAA Alumni Achievement Award was created in 1970 by the WSUAA Board of Directors to recognize alumni who have given outstanding service to WSU and made contributions to their professions and communities. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the Alumni Association. Of an estimated 250,000 students who have attended WSU, Culver is the 532nd Alumni Achievement Award recipient.
News media contact:
Christina Parrish, WSU alumni engagement, 509-335-6907, parrishc@wsu.edu