Presenting 2024 Hotelie Hall of Fame Story - James H. “Bud” Ward, ‘52

In 1952, James H. “Bud” Ward became the first African American to graduate from the Cornell Hotel School. Ward remembers being called into Dean Meek’s office early in his first semester. Meek congratulated Ward on his accomplishments, and then asked him what he planned to do when he graduated.

“Dean Meek seemed to be fully aware and honestly concerned that Negroes were not being hired as managers in the hotel industry,” Ward says. “I gave him some weak response about there being hotels primarily for Negroes. That seemed to relieve him quite a bit.”

When graduation came, Ward’s classmates were lining up jobs with major hotels, and he hoped to do the same. ..