E. Carlson; Led United Airlines, Westin Hotels

Edward Carlson, the former head of United Airlines and Westin Hotels who conceived the idea for Seattle’s landmark Space Needle, has died. He was 78.

Carlson died of cancer Tuesday night in a Seattle hospital.

He had suggested building the Space Needle with its revolving restaurant as the theme building of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. The idea was prompted by a revolving hotel he had seen in Stuttgart, West Germany.

Born in Tacoma, Wash., June 4, 1911, Carlson moved to Seattle as a youngster.

He began his meteoric rise in business at the bottom--working as a bellboy at Seattle’s Benjamin Franklin Hotel while he attended classes at the University of Washington. When a chance for a position as hotel pageboy fell through, he despaired about what he would do with his life.

But Carlson persevered and by 1946 was assistant to the president of Western Hotels, a small Seattle-based hotel chain. By 1960, he was head of the greatly enlarged Western International Hotels chain that controlled 100 hotels.

When the chain was merged with United Airlines in 1970, shortening its name to Westin, Carlson went on to become president, chairman and chief executive officer of UAL Inc., the umbrella holding company for the airline and hotels.

Although he retired from all company positions in 1983, Carlson was invited in 1987 to rejoin the board of Allegis, the successor to UAL.

He was a regent of the University of Washington, and in 1987 was named to the Puget Sound Business Hall of Fame.