Daytona Beach, FL - A longtime Daytona Beach hotelier
instrumental in shaping the tourism industry in the United States has
passed
away at the age of 80.
Tom Staed (photo courtesy of Daytona Beach Shores
History
Museum), the Chairman of Staed Family Associates, Ltd., died around 9
o’clock
Tuesday morning, according to Bob Davis, CEO & President of the
Volusia
County Hotel & Lodging Association.
“He was very well respected throughout the country, not just
in Daytona
Beach,” Davis added. “My phone just hasn’t stopped ringing.”
Davis, who worked under Staed for 8 years as a vice-president,
tells WNDB
his former boss was “the hotelier’s hotelier”.
“He created more things in America and throughout the country
for
hospitality than anyone I know,” Davis added.
Staed began in the hotel industry via his father-in-law after
going to
school to become an attorney, according to Davis.
“He started off originally with a mom-and-pop hotel and worked
his way up,”
Davis added.
According to a profile posted in the Floridian View in 2011,
Staed’s company
owned many Volusia County beachside hotel properties until the late
1990′s.
Staed was active in many organizations, including serving
terms as president
of the Volusia County Hotel & Lodging Association, the Florida
Hotel &
Motel Association and the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
Staed also
worked as president & chairman of Best Western International.
But perhaps one of his biggest contributions, according to
Davis, was
partnering up with a close friend – then-Florida Governor Lawton Chiles
– to
create Visit Florida in 1996, the official tourism marketing
corporation for
the State of Florida.
“We never had that before,” Davis added.
Another thing Staed helped bring that Florida never had
before: the
bed tax, used in many forms since its inception to build and promote
tourism in
the state.
“He was the grand-daddy of the bed tax,” Davis said. “We were
the only
industry to ever go before the state legislature and tax ourselves.
Opponents said we were crazy, we would drive tourism out of the state
of
Florida. Here we are, many moons later, practically leading the nation
in
tourism.”
Above all else, though, Davis says Staed should be best known
for his
humanitarianism, part of which included his stint as chairman of the
Volusia-Flagler chapter of the United Way.
“Tom Stead was a tremendous donor to many charities,” Davis
added. “[He]
gave so much of his life to our Daytona Beach area and never asked for
anything
in return. He never wanted accolades, just did what was needed for our
community.”
by
Robert Alonso
Copyright 2013 Black Crow Media.
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