Curt Ewald, Director of Marketing at the Beverly Hilton and a 25 year veteran of the hospitality industry, died Sunday, September 5, 2010 at home. He was 52.

The family reported his death came less than two months after he was first diagnosed with adenocarcinoma lung cancer.

Curt Robert Ewald was born in 1958 in Berlin, Germany, while his father was stationed there with the US Army. He grew up in Reston, VA, where among many activities he helped organize the Reston Redskins Appreciation Day after their 1972 Super Bowl appearance, and graduated in 1976 from Herndon High School where he served as senior class president and was picked as most likely to succeed. 

A 1978 graduate of Johnson and Wales University College of Culinary Arts, Curt started out working in the kitchens at the Greenbrier in West Virginia and the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island, Michigan. He eventually moved into Sales and Marketing while working with Hyatt Hotels. With Hyatt he worked in Knoxville, Houston, Oak Brook, Illinois and Washington D.C. After a stint with Hilton at the Palmer House in Chicago he moved to Singapore to work at The Regent. He moved over to the Westin Stamford and Plaza in Singapore and eventually rose to become the Senior VP of Marketing for Asia for Starwood Hotels (after Starwood purchased Westin). He returned to the United States as a Senior VP of Operations with Wyndam Hotels in Dallas. He relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a variety of entrepreneurial projects, including sales training consulting and helping launch an online destination management site for the LA market. Earlier this year he returned to the Hilton organization with the Beverly Hilton.

Curt was an avid follower of national and international news, even in his final weeks. He encouraged the creation of an online community (http://cancerfreecurt.ning.com) to share his experiences with his far flung friends, family and colleagues. His final posting after learning that the cancer was about to overtake him became the basis for a blog by Dr. Len on the American Cancer Society website (http://bit.ly/djmsOF). His final weeks were on hospice care an option he believes all terminal patients should have easy access to.

He was also an active member of the Rotary Club, Wilshire chapter.

He is survived by his wife, Deborah Png, two children, Fei (11) and Han (9), and his father Robert, all residents of Los Angeles. He is also survived by his mother, Dorothea von Karstedt who lives in Italy, and his younger brother Garrett who lives in New York.

A memorial event has been scheduled for Sunday, October 10, 2010 at his home in the Westchester area of Los Angeles from 10am to 1pm. 

In lieu of flowers the family requests that his friends and family seek out opportunities to participate in cancer research fundraising. A trust fund is also being created to help with education expenses for his two children.