Presenting Hotelie Hall of Fame Story - Annabella Santos Wisniewski ’65
Excerpt from Annabella's story...
"Annabel, as she has come to be more widely and familiarly known, was born into the restaurant and hotel business. Her mother, Honorata Fajardo, owned and ran Bungalow Food Services, the largest restaurant company in the Philippine industry in the 1950s. Naturally, her mom would have none of her teenage dream of becoming an architect, like her father.
“You should go into business; then you can support a hobby like architecture,” she said, and proceeded to command Annabel: “Go to the best hotel school there is. Go to Cornell.”
Within months, her mom and friends were hosting H. B. Meek, the founding dean of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, in Manila. Once she heard Dean Meek’s spiel on Cornell, Annabel was sold and obediently on her way to Ithaca."