David Hadrick:  

After graduation from DHS, my desire was to see the world. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam wanted me to join the military, so, to avoid that, I pursued a school deferment. I choose the University of Hawaii as it appealed to my sense of adventure. Hotel management was the schools strong point, so I majored in that, but spent most of my time surfing and skin diving. I graduated with a roaring C average, but managed to get hired into management with Sheraton Hotels and for the next 10 years worked at their premier properties in Waikiki; the Moana, the Surfrider, and the Sheraton-Waikiki. Although working those early years in Waikiki had its rewards, it also brought me into contact with an assortment of movie stars, rock bands, athletes, and government dignitaries, not always under the most pleasant of circumstances. For some reason in the early 70s, all rock bands felt it was their anti-establishment responsibility to destroy the hotel rooms they stayed in. Although I enjoyed their music, I had some nasty confrontations with a number of well-known rock groups concerning paying for damages. There were many, but the worst was Joe Cocker and his mad-dog entourage in '72. They flooded the elevator wells and threw room furniture out the windows. One of their drunken guitarists also lost his finger jumping out of a palm tree when his ring caught on a palm frond. I could go on with more incredulous stories but it would take several pages. On a positive side I did have a short-lived "close" relationship with a female rock star that shall remain unnamed. (There was no scandal as we were both single. (I saw her recently on TV. I hope I don't look that old!) A number of the movie stars who stayed at the properties were jerks, but some were great. Harvey Korman helped my roommate (Ken Kanter's brother, Bill) with a play he was producing, and when I confronted Goldie Hawn for further credit when her credit card was rejected, she was cool about it. She appeared on the cover of Newsweek at the time, so she autographed a copy for me. I will end the name-dropping, but I have to brag that I had the opportunity to meet my childhood Major League Baseball heros at the Waikiki baseball convention in 1976. I escorted the famous shortstops (then retired) Ernie Banks of the Cubs, Pee-Wee Reese of the Dodgers, and Phil Rizzuto of the Yankees to their rooms and, to me, that was the greatest honor of all. The baseball position I like playing as a kid was shortstop. From 1979 to 1997 working with Sheraton took me to Maui, Molokai, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia. Working as a General Manager overseas at international 5-star hotels put me and my family in an unexpected high-profile lifestyle, which I really did not care for. Sheraton paid full-maintenance for us to live in fully-equipped Presidential Suites on-site. As an American, the news media always wanted my comment on things; I was constantly invited to speak at various clubs and community functions, and was even asked to give a commencement speech at a large Australian high school. (I did that, but never mentioned that I graduated at the bottom of my class.) Job protocol required me to have dinner several times with the Australian Prime Minister, the Premier of Queensland, as well as officiated the openin...Expand for more