Vacation timeshare pioneer Edwin H. McMullen Sr., who played a significant role in bringing hospitality brands into the industry, passed away April 10 at his home in Sarasota, FL. He was 83 years old.
Today’s extensive Marriott and Hilton vacation-ownership companies trace their history back to his significant involvement.
Timesharing was in its infancy in 1977 when McMullen and his business partner, Robert (Bob) Miller, began exploring the concept. The next year McMullen formed American Resorts, Inc., which Miller joined a few months later. Together they began developing purpose-built, upscale timeshare resorts on Hilton Head Island, SC, a departure from the renovated condominiums and motels offered at that time by other developers.
American Resorts came to the attention of hotelier J.W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr. In 1984 he bought the company, keeping McMullen and Miller on to run and grow it. While Miller focused on the financial aspects, McMullen oversaw marketing and sales, product development, and strategic planning. This enterprise evolved into today’s Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation, a separate public timeshare company.
McMullen’s contract with Marriott ended in 1990. In 1991 he joined with The Mariner Group, a southwest Florida development company, to form Grand Vacations Company. The addition of Hilton Hotels in 1992 created Hilton Grand Vacations Club (now Hilton Grand Vacations).
In recent years, through a family company now called McMullen Development, Edwin McMullen Sr. and his sons, Ed Jr. and Malcolm McMullen, have been involved in a variety of mixed-use resort lifestyle real-estate projects; fractional, private residence club, and vacation-ownership projects; active-adult lifestyle retirement communities; and inter-generational university-affiliated retirement communities.
Edwin McMullen Sr. was a past chairman of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), a founding director and vice president of the ARDA International Research Foundation, and a recipient of ARDA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was active in the leadership of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and was a 35-year member of the Urban Land Institute. He was also a board member of the African Collection, Ltd., a safari and lodging company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with resorts in 26 game parks throughout Africa.
He leaves behind wife Julie Kimmel McMullen; his four children, Ed Jr. and Malcolm McMullen, Melanie McMullen Gardner, and Michelle McMullen Coulter; Julie’s son Scott Schaefer; nine grandchildren; two great grandchildren; and other extended family members.
In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations in his memory be directed to the Edwin H. McMullen, Sr., ’58 Scholarship Fund, Florida Southern College, 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland, FL 33801.