Jason Koski/University Photography

Dean Michael Johnson speaks at a reception for the School of Hotel Administration's 90th anniversary Sept. 20 in Statler Hall's Park Atrium. 

It began in 1922 with one professor and about 20 students. In 1950 it opened the first teaching hotel. Today, it is known worldwide as the leader in hospitality management education.

On Sept. 20 Cornell's School of Hotel Administration (SHA) celebrated 90 years to the day of educating entrepreneurs and leaders in the hospitality industry. The occasion was marked with a reception attended by over 500 students, staff, alumni, faculty and administrators in Statler Hall's Park Atrium, and an alumni reception in Washington, D.C.

The school began as a small program within the Department of Home Economics in the College of Agriculture, before officially becoming the School of Hotel Administration in 1954. Today it is known for offering a hospitality-focused business leadership education that emphasizes experiential learning, extracurricular programs, industry research and professional networking.

"You can see how far we've come," said Michael Johnson, SHA dean and E.M. Statler Professor, noting that the school not only was the first in the country to offer an undergraduate hospitality management degree, but it also launched the first master's degree program in the field in 1973.

Jason Koski/University Photography

"We have continued to innovate over the years," Johnson said.

For example, in 1992 the school created the Center for Hospitality Research, which sponsors research designed to improve practices in the hospitality industry. In 2006 it launched the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship and in 2009 created the Center for Real Estate and Finance. In 2012, an $11 million gift from SHA alum Richard Baker and his wife, Lisa, endowed the Baker Program in Real Estate at Cornell, which is jointly operated by SHA and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. At the start of fall classes, SHA opened the Marriott Student Learning Center, made possible by a $3 million gift from the Marriott Foundation.

The anniversary celebration was capped by the singing of "Happy Birthday, Dear Hotelies" before cake (baked by Sam Ostergaard '13) was served.

"You don't know where you're going unless you know where you've been," said Johnson after the cake-cutting. "The key to our ability to become the pre-eminent hotel school in the world was our separation, structurally, from Home Economics, and creating our own identity. But our continued connection to our roots -- through collaboration with the other schools and colleges at Cornell and the opportunities they offer in such other areas as real estate, senior living, health care management and sustainability -- is the key to our future."

One who remembers those roots is Charles Mund '51, a university presidential councillor and chief executive officer of Burger King restaurant franchisee Mega Management, who attended the reception with his wife, Carol '52. Mund was a student when the school became independent from the College of Home Economics. "To see [the school] develop into what it is today has been great," he said.

The school has close to 900 undergraduate students from more than 30 countries, over 100 master's degree students, 60 faculty members and nearly 13,000 alumni.