Roger Sonnabend

Who was Roger Sonnabend?

Roger P. Sonnabend was an American hotelier and businessman. He was the head of Sonesta International Hotels Corporation.

Roger, the eldest of three brothers, graduated from MIT and took the helm at the Nautilus Hotel and Beach Club, in Atlantic Beach, New York, when he was 21. He graduated Harvard Business School in 1949.

The family business was known as Hotel Corporation of America. Roger inherited the presidency from his father, the founder of the chain. Later, in homage to his mother, the company was renamed Sonesta Hotels, a combination formed from her name, Esther Sonnabend.

Among the hotels managed by HCA was a 200-room luxury ocean-front hotel in Southampton Parish, Bermuda -- originally named the Carlton Beach. It became entangled in extensive litigation between the builder/owner, the J. Irwin Miller family, and HCA. After a Court resolution that satisfied no one, the hotel was sold to HCA and later renamed the Sonesta Beach. It was demolished after suffering severe damage in a hurricane around 2005.

Roger's political work landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.