May 7--BILOXI, Miss.--A longtime hotelier and champion of tourism was honored Monday night with an award named in honor of a dear friend who recently passed away. 

Eddie McGuire was this year's recipient of the Harrison County Tourism Commission's Billy Creel Excellence in Tourism Award. 

The award was presented at the Mississippi Gulf Coast annual Tourism Dinner at the President Casino Broadwater Resort Crown Room. 

McGuire said before the banquet that he's received a lot of recognition for his work over the years, "but this one has got me more excited than any other because I would have been quite honored had Billy been here to share it with me." 

This year the dinner paid tribute to longtime hotelier Creel, who died this past November after a long bout with cancer. 

Creel, past president of both the Harrison County Tourism Commission and Mississippi and Gulf Coast hotel-motel associations, was known as an advocate of South Mississippi tourism. 

Creel, whose career in tourism began in the 1950s, had been senior director of operations at Isle of Capri Casino Resort. He was posthumously named tourism leader of the year and was one of the first five inductees in the Mississippi Tourism Hall of Fame. 

Creel and McGuire had been friends for years, going back to the time nearly 40 years ago when McGuire tried to hire him. 

It was 1963 and McGuire had just moved here from Oklahoma to take over as front office manager of the Broadwater. 

He wanted to get the best staff in place that he could, and had been told about Billy Creel, who was a front office clerk at the Buena Vista. 

For three months McGuire called him at least once a week trying to hire him, despite Creel's insistence that he wasn't interested. 

"Finally, after three months, he said he'd consider my offer if I'd quit calling him," he said. 

"He and I developed an extraordinary friendship," said McGuire, who served for years with Creel on the Harrison County Tourism Commission. 

"We worked together on a lot of projects. Things that Billy valued were the same things that I valued," he said. 

It was about four years ago when McGuire was president of the tourism commission that he and Steve Richer decided to create the award and name it in honor of Creel. 

McGuire, 70, who retired in 1996 but has remained involved in the industry through special projects, said he never thought he'd receive the award he helped create. 

The dinner coincided with the 19th annual National Tourism Week, which lasts until Sunday. In Mississippi tourism is a $6 billion industry responsible for more than 94,000 jobs. 

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(c) 2002, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. PREZ,