Robert Earl Holding

The American businessman Robert Earl Holding is the longtime owner of Sinclair Oil, the Grand America and Westgate Hotel and Little America Hotels, and two ski resorts: Sun Valley, Idaho and Snowbasin in Ogden, Utah. Born in Salt Lake City, he was a child of the Depression who saw his family's savings wiped away, and went to work at age 12. Following service in World War II, he studied civil engineering at the University of Utah joined the Bureau of Land Reclamation. He pooled his and his wife's savings to buy a part interest in a failing hotel in Little America, Wyoming. Holding made a success of the business, and soon became the full owner. In the next few years, he built a second Little America and bought his first oil refinery. He added Little America locations in Salt Lake City and Flagstaff, Arizona, as well as San Diego's Westgate Hotel to his portfolio. He expanded his interest in oil and gas exploration, becoming Chairman and President of Sinclair Oil Company. He later purchased the Sun Valley ski resort, as well as 400,000 acres of working cattle ranch land in Wyoming and Montana. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1992 Summit in Ls Vegas, Nevada, discussed how his experience of poverty during the Depression motivated him. He recalls the risks he took to succeed in business and exhorts the Academy's student delegates, to seek out challenging experiences in their education and working lives.