Conrad Hilton

Conrad Nicholson Hilton (December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979) was an American hotel magnate and politician who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. From 1912 to 1916, Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature, but became disillusioned with the "inside deals" of politics. In 1919, he purchased his first hotel, the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, for US$40,000 (equivalent to $742,802 in 2025) and subsequently capitalized on the oil boom. The rooms were rented out in eight-hour shifts. He continued to purchase and sell hotels, and eventually established the world's first international hotel chain. When he died in 1979, he left the bulk of his estate to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Hilton was born on December 25, 1887, in San Antonio, Socorro County, New Mexico territory, to Norwegian-born Augustus Halvorsen Hilton (1854–1919) and Mary Genevieve Laufersweiler, a devout Catholic of German descent. He attended the Goss Military Academy (since renamed as the New Mexico Military Institute) and St. Michael's College (later called the Santa Fe University of Art and Design), and the New Mexico School of Mines (now New Mexico Tech). From 1912 to 1916, Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature, when the state was newly formed. Hilton became frustrated with the "bureaucracy, slowness, cheating, lying, and inside deals of politics," and in 1916, he refused to run for a fourth term, instead endorsing his longtime political ally, Quianu Robinson.

He served two years in the United States Army during World War I. After completing Officer Training School, he became a second lieutenant, and served in Paris in the Quartermaster Corps. While Hilton was in France with the army after the war, his father was killed in a car accident.

The most enduring influences to shape Hilton's philanthropic philosophy, beyond that of his parents, were the Catholic Church and his sisters. He credited his mother with guiding him to prayer and the church whenever he was troubled or dismayed—from the boyhood loss of a beloved pony, to severe financial losses during the Great Depression. His mother continually told him that prayer was the best investment he would ever make.

As a young boy, Hilton developed entrepreneurial skills working at his father's general store in Socorro County, New Mexico, which was partially converted into a 10-room hotel. This was followed by varied experiences, including a stint as a representative in New Mexico's first State Legislature, and a career decision to become a banker.

He intended to buy a bank when he arrived in Texas at the height of the Texas oil boom. In 1919, he instead bought his first hotel, the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, when a bank purchase fell through. The hotel did such brisk business that rooms changed hands as often as three times a day, and the dining room was converted into additional rooms to meet the demand. He went on to buy and build hotels throughout Texas, including the high-rise Dallas Hilton, which opened in 1925; the Abilene Hilton in 1927; Waco Hilton in 1928; and El Paso Hilton in 1930. The first hotel outside of Texas that Hilton built was in 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, today it is known as the Hotel Andaluz. During the Great Depression, Hilton was nearly forced into bankruptcy and lost several of his hotels. Nevertheless, he was retained as manager of a combined chain, and eventually regained control of his remaining eight hotels.

Over the next decade, he expanded west to California and east to Chicago and New York, crowning his expansions with such acquisitions as the Stevens Hotel in Chicago (then the world's largest hotel; it was renamed the Conrad Hilton), and the fabled Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. He formed the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1946, and Hilton International Company in 1948.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Hilton Hotels' worldwide expansion facilitated both American tourism and overseas business by American corporations. It was the world's first international hotel chain, at the same time establishing a certain worldwide standard for hotel accommodations. In 1954, Hilton Hotels bought the Hotels Statler Company, Inc. for $111 million, then the world's largest real estate transaction. In all, Hilton eventually owned 188 hotels in 38 cities across the U.S., including the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.; the Palmer House in Chicago; and the Plaza Hotel and Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, along with 54 hotels abroad. He later purchased the Carte Blanche Credit Company and an interest in the American Crystal Sugar Company, as well as other enterprises.

Hilton received honorary degrees from the University of Detroit (1953), DePaul University (1954), Barat College (1955), Adelphi College (1957), Sophia University, Tokyo (1963), and the University of Albuquerque (1975). Hilton's autobiography, Be My Guest, was published in 1958 by Prentice Hall. In 1966, Hilton was succeeded as president by his son, Barron, and was elected chairman of the board.

In 1925, Hilton married Mary Adelaide Barron (1906–1966). They had three sons, Conrad Hilton Jr., Barron Hilton, and Eric Hilton, before divorcing in 1934.

In 1942, Hilton married actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. They had one child, a daughter, Francesca Hilton, before divorcing in 1947. Gabor wrote in her 1991 autobiography One Lifetime Is Not Enough that she became pregnant by Hilton only after he raped her during their marriage. Francesca died in 2015, at age 67, from a stroke.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was established in 1944 by Conrad N. Hilton. Its mission is the alleviation of human suffering worldwide.

The Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize was created in 1996 by The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

The Conrad N. Hilton College is a hospitality college of the University of Houston named after Conrad Hilton.

The Conrad N. Hilton Library is located at the Hyde Park campus of the Culinary Institute of America.

At Loyola Marymount University are The Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Business Ethics, The Hilton Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, and the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship in the College of Business Administration.

Be My Guest: Autobiography of Conrad Hilton (Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1958)

Inspirations of an Innkeeper (privately printed, 1963)