Marc Leffman, COO of French Quarter Hospitality is Dead

More Than 40 Years of Service in the Industry

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. July 13, 2009

JULY 13, 2009 - Marc Leffman, a hospitality veteran with 40 years of industry service, passed away on July 7, 2009 after a short and courageous battle with cancer. A beloved husband, father and grandfather, Leffman earned the respect and praise of peers and associates with his business acumen, quick wit and kindness.

A hotelier through and through, his life was his work and vice versa, raising his family at hotels around the country and ultimately choosing to conduct affairs from his bed even days before his death.

In a 2005 blog entry, he reflected about his career, "I have been in the hotel business for 36 years now. I was very young when I started, and I never thought it would go this long. But I can't ever imagine doing anything else. It is still quite a great industry, and I have met so many wonderful friends and colleagues."

A successful manager of ten major properties who earned numerous awards from employers including Miami-based The Continental Companies and Sheraton Hotel & Resorts, Leffman joined French Quarter in 2000 soon after its founding. As COO, he oversaw marketing, staff planning, profit analysis, product service and presentation.

His affiliations included the Doubletree Hotel JFK Airport in Jamaica, NY; Omni Albany Hotel (now Crowne Plaza Hotel Albany - City Center) in Albany, NY; Hilton Cleveland South (now Doubletree Hotel Cleveland South) in Cleveland, OH; Sheraton Chicago (now InterContinental) and Sheraton O'Hare in Chicago; Sheraton Grand Dallas Forth Worth Airport in Irving, TX; and Savannah Inn & Country Club in Savannah, GA. He also owned a food importing business in Phoenix.

A native of Chicago who was recently based in Atlanta with French Quarter Hospitality, he dedicated his past three years to the conception and recent opening of the $130-million La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa, French Quarter Hospitality's most significant project to date. Leffman was hands on in nearly every aspect of the endeavor, which transformed an abandoned conference property on the shores of Lake Conroe near Houston into one of the region's most noteworthy new destinations and one of the Conroe area's largest employers.