Doyle Rogers
The Little Rock Peabody hotel was reflagged as a Marriott on Wednesday. In a ceremony that day, the Marriott’s staff honored Arkansas real estate developer Doyle Rogers Sr., who died Feb. 4.
Bruce Skidmore, the director of sales and marketing for the Marriott, announced that the hotel’s Peabody Suite would be renamed the Doyle Rogers Suite.
Rogers developed the Excelsior Hotel, which later became the Peabody, and the adjacent Statehouse Convention Center. It opened in 1982, on the spot where Rogers razed two old hotels.
“Doyle Rogers had the vision to implode those hotels and build the Excelsior Hotel,” Skidmore said.
He said the naming was “a small gesture for obviously a Little Rock icon.” The renamed suite had also for years served as the Rogerses’ home, he said.
Rogers’ widow, Raye Rogers, was present for the Wednesday ceremony.
Rogers was among 25 “Living Legends” recognized in Arkansas Business’ 25th anniversary publication in 2009. In addition to the Excelsior and the convention center, he also developed what is now the Stephens Inc. building. The bank he purchased in 1983, Metropolitan National Bank, now has the naming rights to Little Rock’s largest building.
Rogers was inducted into the University of Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2006.
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