Stephen Marriott

By his early 20s, after completing a Mormon mission in British Columbia and entering graduate business school, Stephen Marriott could barely make out his professor’s notes on the chalkboard. His condition was diagnosed years later as mitochondrial disease, a rare muscular disorder. It left him with a stutter and spasms in his hands that prevented him from mastering Braille. It has no cure. Stephen Marriott, who died June 23 2013 at age 54, was part of the close-knit Marriott family management. Despite his physical barriers, he rose through the company starting from the lowest rungs. By the early 1990s, he was director of resort marketing at the company’s corporate headquarters in Bethesda. He was mentioned as a potential heir in running the company, but his health problems deepened. In 2011, his father, J.W. “Bill” Marriott Jr., the son of the company founder, retired as Marriott International chief executive and was succeeded by Arne Sorenson, the president and chief operating officer. Since 2006, Stephen Marriott has held the title of executive vice president for culture. Stephen Garff Marriott was born in Washington on April 15, 1959, and grew up in Chevy Chase. He graduated in 1977 from the private St. Albans School in the District and in 1983 from Brigham Young University in Utah. He received a master’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University in 1985. Survivors include his wife of 32 years, Juliana Baughman Marriott of Potomac; three children, S. Blake Marriott of Boston and Jennifer Jackson and Ashley Samuelian, both of Orange County, Calif.; his parents, Bill and Donna Marriott of Bethesda; two brothers, John W. Marriott III and David Marriott, both of Potomac; a sister, Deborah Harrison of Potomac; and five grandchildren.