Presenting 2026 Hotelie Hall of Fame Story - Joe Lavin ’75
Published on August 11, 2026
An excerpt from Joe's story...
“We traveled to Ithaca and did the tour of the school; the ambassador (a role also fulfilled by my daughter, Allie ‘07 years later) was quite the charmer and had Mom all jazzed up about the Hotel School—I was too.
I think I was a bit tepid in the interview (parents joined in those days) and when we came out into the hall after, my Dad said, “Well, you sure flunked that interview.”
But I think what pulled me through was my answer to the question “If you don’t get into Cornell, what other hotel schools are you looking at?” I said, “If I don’t get into the best, I won’t go to hotel school—it’s Cornell or nothing.”