Menomonie, Wis. — Alumnus Randy Morrissette II’s path has led him back to a career at a new hotel with a bird’s eye view of University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Morrissette, 46, of Hudson, is regional manager for WHG Companies, a professional hospitality management company that manages Cobblestone Inn & Suites in downtown Menomonie, right across Main Street from the UW-Stout Clock Tower Plaza.
“UW-Stout was very good to me, and Menomonie was very good to me,” he said. “We are really excited to be a partner with the Menomonie community and the UW-Stout community.”
A Hudson native, Morrissette graduated from UW-Stout in 1994 with a psychology degree and an emphasis in criminal justice. After graduation, he worked in job placement and then in Washington County, Minn., at a shelter for adolescents.
He started working for the Hudson Fairfield Inn and became a property support manager for the Fairfield and Hampton Inn in Burnsville, Minn. He worked for many years with Tharaldson Property Management and was an Aimbridge Hospitality area general manager for Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Hudson and Coon Rapids, Minn.
Morrissette, a UW-Stout Alumni Board member, said he was attracted to working with Cobblestone Inns & Suites because they are a growing company. He manages the hotels in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Idaho.
The Cobblestone Inn & Suites in downtown Menomonie fills a niche in the community, Morrissette said.
The plan is to work with UW-Stout and students studying hotel, restaurant and tourism management to provide internships and cooperative opportunities, Morrissette said.
“We want to partner with the university,” Morrissette said, while seated in the breakfast area of the hotel with the UW-Stout Clock Tower in view. “We want to be a part of the lives of students who want to go into the industry. They are going to learn hands on about the people business and the importance of customer satisfaction."
The hotel opened Dec. 30 and is planning a grand opening in March.
The ties to UW-Stout and the community are shown throughout the 51-room hotel, located at 149 E. Main St., with historical pictures in the rooms, including the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts and downtown Menomonie. The pictures are from the collection of the Dunn County Historical Society.
In the lobby is a near life-size reproduction of a historic picture of students carrying books in March 1954 to the university’s first library building. The two students in the front of the line were Patricia Casberg and Richard Warsinske, who were married in 1955. During the library move, roughly 900 students moved 40,000 volumes in one day.
The hotel also features a fireplace in the lobby, a lounge or breakfast nook area overlooking Main Street, a fitness area, standard rooms, suites and extended stay rooms.
Was active in student groups on campus
While at UW-Stout, Morrissette was a member and eventually president of Phi Sigma Phi fraternity. He also served as executive vice president of the fraternity at the national level. He served as director of Legislative Affairs with the Stout Student Association and was president of the Inner Residential Hall Association. A first-generation college graduate, Morrissette’s father was a police officer for 25 years in Hudson.
Morrissette also was involved in UW-Stout theater and credits it as giving him the confidence to get more involved in campus activities. His first stint in theater was at the Hudson Phipps Center when he was in eighth grade, landing the role of Huck Finn in “Tom Sawyer.”
“I used every opportunity on campus to get involved,” Morrissette said. “It helped me to do more social networking, which has been rewarding. UW-Stout built that confidence for me.”
Morrissette has been a Hudson City Council member for the last 12 years and is president-elect for the Rotary Club in Hudson.
“It is about helping people and community service,” he said of being an alderman, noting that is why he enjoys the hotel business, which is about providing customer service.
Menomonie Police Chief Eric Atkinson, who used to work at the Hudson Police Department and has known Morrissette for years, said the Cobblestone Inn & Suites is a wonderful addition to the downtown and is pleased Morrissette is part of that.
“It’s great to see a local alumnus come back and be successful and be a part of our downtown,” Atkinson said.
Mesa Covill, senior alumni relations officer at UW-Stout, said Morrissette is a devoted and passionate UW-Stout alumnus, striving to make the new hotel beneficial to both the university and Cobblestone Inn & Suites.
“Having this relationship with Cobblestone will help UW-Stout in tremendous ways,” Covill said. “We are incredibly fortunate to have an alum like Randy right here in town making such efforts in helping UW-Stout be the best it can be.”
While at UW-Stout, Morrissette met his wife, Kirsten, who also attended the university. They have two sons, Jacob, 19, a freshman at UW-Stout studying criminal justice, and Mitchell, 15, a sophomore at Hudson High School.
