Lauderdale: Hilton Head thrives with Angus Cotton’s ‘aggressive hospitality’

Picture Angus Cotton lecturing a group of puzzled employees at Hilton Head Hospital.

His hair needs a comb. His oversized glasses of the mid-1980s dominate a naturally friendly face.

He’s got a piece of chalk in his hand. And with booming voice he’s trying to teach hospital administrators “aggressive hospitality.”

On that day, Cotton was in his heyday as a community leader. He was general manager of Marriott’s Hilton Head Resort and president of the chamber of commerce.

He, John Curry and John David Rose had just brought a leery hospitality industry on board with Harriet Keyserling, the state representative from Beaufort, to enact a statewide accommodations tax to fund arts and tourism promotion. He’d just been part of another “impossible” task: loosening up the state’s liquor laws to show better hospitality.

Now, as we are saddened by Cotton’s passing at 90 in his Sea Pines home on Sunday night, and as a new generation of Hilton Head leaders grope for a vision, we could still learn a lot from professor Cotton.

He came out of Chicago and Iowa — staying wherever the Depression was less crushing — to get a degree from the University of Iowa and a job in the food business. He thought he’d like working with food because he helped an eccentric uncle hawk hamburgers at Iowa county fairs. He went to work for John Patrick Harding, America’s “Corned Beef King.”

He then worked in the upscale Fred Harvey restaurants, where he learned the value of training, but left with his greatest achievement, his marriage to Beverly. By 1963, he was recruited to run food and beverage for Marriott’s four hotels. By the time he got to Hilton Head in 1980 to open its new oceanfront resort, the chain had 75 hotels, many of them set up with input from Cotton.

He learned “aggressive hospitality” at the knee of J. Willard Marriott, whose career began with a $500 investment in a floundering root beer stand.

Marriott was a detail man, famous for “coaching and counseling” his managers and taking long walks with them over the properties, pointing out the smallest of shortcomings. He was a fanatic about cleanliness. He also was a people person, and each guest was to get the red carpet treatment.

Surely, the Hilton Head Hospital administrators were getting a heavy dose of Bill Marriott as Cotton pointed to the capital letters scrawled on the chalkboard: “STOIC.” He urged them to treat patients like hotel guests. And here’s how:

Select good people; Train often; Organize well; Inform staff; Control staff with positive reinforcement.

He also stressed “MBWA”: management by walking around. Listen to your employees and guests — or patients.

Cotton felt that people needed to know what their business was and stick to it. “First thing you do is run the hotel,” he said. “Do your job first.”

For more than 30 years, we got to watch Cotton live this aggressive hospitality. He did it in a joyful, generous, upbeat way. It was a boon to Hilton Head, Beaufort County and the state as the hospitality industry surpassed textiles as South Carolina’s leading enterprise.

“He’s creative, knowledgeable and practical,” said the late John Curry, his close friend and partner in caring deeply and lobbying hard for Hilton Head.

Those two treated everyone with respect. They were honest. They were hard workers, much of it behind the scenes in subtle ways no one ever knew. They aimed for the highest standards. And when times were tough, they were at the grindstone.

Cotton was forever optimistic. But he warned of changes that needed attention as Hilton Head approached build-out. He said much of its second-leading industry of construction and development would pack up and leave.

In the mid-1980s, he said we needed to focus on the future — concentrating on higher education; low- to moderate-income housing; recreation; health and medical services; and transportation.

He and others worked hard on a “Town Center” that would give the island a central place for government, arts, churches and schools. It was to be part of Indigo Run, but the promised land, in the end, was not available.

He urged the working families of Hilton Head to get involved, pay attention and vote. He thought the stadium built by volunteers at Hilton Head Island High School could help unite a community that was a gaggle of gated enclaves. Maybe it lifted his spirits when 9,000 people were there last fall for the game against Bluffton.

He lobbied for resorts rather than low-end motels so Hilton Head wouldn’t be like Anywhere.

People have forever labeled Hilton Head as a place of fat cats and wealthy “barons.” Actually, it is a place of hard workers. None will surpass Angus and Beverly Cotton — he of the county fair hamburgers, and she whose first job was at age 6 picking beans for 3 cents a pound.

We shouldn’t have to go to the hospital to appreciate the aggressive hospitality of Angus Cotton’s life.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Lauderdale: Hilton Head thrives with Angus Cotton’s ‘aggressive hospitality’."