By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Checking guests in, making beds, preparing meals, running room service, dialing morning calls _ all part of a daily routine for any ordinary hotel _ but veteran hotel manager Richard Gorman says his job had a different purpose.
As the former general manager of the five-star Dragon Hill Lodge located in the Eighth U.S. Army base in Seoul, Gorman’s guests were no ordinary individuals on business or vacation, but soldiers transferring in and out of Korea.
``Our hotels and many of the things we do are identical with the things common to our counterparts in commercial hotels like Hiltons, Hyatts and Marriotts, but we do those tasks for very different reasons,’’ said the 59-year-old, who has been in the military recreation business for almost four decades.
Dragon Hill Lodge in Korea, Hale Koa Hotel in Hawaii, Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Germany and Shades of Green in Florida are four lodging facilities operated by the U.S. Armed Forces Recreation Center in support of personnel assigned overseas.
Gorman was with the local branch, with 394 guest rooms and six restaurants and lounges, for seven years from 1998 to 2005.
``It was a wonderful experience and the quality, commitment and pride I saw in our Korean employees were beyond my expectations,’’ Gorman, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center (CFSC) based in Virginia, said in a recent Korea Times interview.
After leaving his post in Korea, Gorman says he has missed the country and regrets not being around as much as he had hoped.
``I really didn’t have any language barriers,’’ he said laughing.
``That’s because I didn’t attempt to speak it from day one. I grew interested toward the later years but I assumed it would be too difficult.’’
Although Gorman has left things undone in Seoul, he took home with him an adoptive Korean daughter.
``I didn’t give Hye-eun an English name _ that’s the first thing we didn’t do because my wife and I didn’t want to give any wrong signals. We want her to feel great pride in where she comes from,’’ said Gorman as he spoke of his seven-year-old daughter and how they met.
His wife did volunteer work through church and while helping to organize baptism for children at an orphanage, she was asked to become a godmother.
``My wife had put her name next to Hye-eun’s by chance and one day the orphanage asked if the children could visit their godmothers’ homes,’’ recalled Gorman. ``And so Hye-eun came to our home and when I saw this little baby asleep every morning, I decided.’’
The couple gave it a thorough thought for a couple weeks and made the decision to bring her home.
With two grown-up children residing away from home, the Gormans said they feel blessed and grateful to have a new addition to their family.
Asked whether he wants to step into the civilian hotel business, the CFSC command member says he finds his job meaningful because of what could be provided to those serving the country.
``Unlike civilian hotels, our stockholders are soldiers who have very little money,’’ he said. ``And our main job is not only to provide excellent service, but to touch their lives and show them that we care.’’
The life-long hotelier, who began his service career as a first lieutenant in 1969 at a bar in the Mohabi Desert, managed a wide-ranging number of facilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia over the past 39 years.
Sharing that the job brought many exciting moments, the New York native said his most memorable moment in Korea was when about 50 Dragon Hill Lodge staffers were asked to cater a DMZ reception in 2003 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Korean armistice.
``Most of them had never been to Panmunjom to honor and commemorate the 50th anniversary that the guns went silent. It was a moving event and I took a picture,’’ he said. ``It’s my most prized possession.’’
Being in the hotel business is beyond rewarding, says Gorman. ``Every small thing I do on the guests’ behalf, I get back 10 times more.’’
``And being in Korea was a tremendously satisfying opportunity and blessing,’’ he said.