David Alan Siegel

Today we announce with great sadness the passing of David Alan Siegel, the Founder and Executive Chairman of Westgate Resorts, at the age of 89. David’s last months were spent surrounded by his loving wife Jacqueline, his children, extended family and close friends. David was born in Chicago and grew up in very humble beginnings in Florida, attended Miami Senior High School and the University of Miami, and served in the United States Air Force Reserves before embarking on a remarkable business career that led to building Westgate Resorts into the largest privately owned timeshare company in the world and one of the largest private employers in Central Florida.

David drew his inspiration from his father, Sid Siegel, who was an entrepreneur in his own right and David considered him the “greatest salesman ever.” David used the skills his father taught him to open many businesses over his lifetime. By the age of four he had his own paper route, but his mother Sadelle made sure he only delivered on one side of their street because he was too young to cross the road by himself. When he was eight, David went to work in his father’s grocery store where he learned the art of salesmanship. Bubble gum was a scarcity during World War II, but David’s father had a source where he could buy bubble gum for one penny per stick. David would cut each stick into 10 pieces and sell them for 10 cents apiece to the other children at school. David became the “bubble gum” king and the most popular kid in school. This experience would later influence him when he was introduced to the concept of timeshare.

In his high school days, David won awards for weightlifting and boxing and operated a water ski school on one of the islands in Miami Bay. Over the next two decades, David opened many businesses in the Miami area and met and fell in love with his first wife Geraldine (Siegel) Sandstrom. David and Geraldine were married for seven years and had three children together - Steven, Valerie and Richard. After his successful business career in Miami, David heard that Walt Disney was building a new theme park in Central Florida and moved with his second wife Bettie (Siegel) Whitaker along with their daughter Stacey and his two step daughters Janet and Kelly to the Orlando area to start buying land, subdividing it and selling it off in small tracts to investors hoping to cash in on the area’s future growth. He started with a makeshift office in his garage, but soon had amassed hundreds of acres of land, a few small hotels and opened The Mystery Funhouse, the area’s first indoor family attraction where generations of kids would come to have their birthday parties.

In 1982 David and Bettie began construction on 16 villas in the back of an orange grove and eventually it grew into the largest timeshare resort in the world – Westgate Vacation Villas. They named their new resort Westgate because it was next to the “west gate” of Walt Disney World. David’s vision to create high quality, yet accessible hospitality became what is now Westgate Resorts, one of the largest private hospitality companies in the United States with more than 10,000 Team Members, 22 resort destinations with over 13,500 rooms and more than 350,000 timeshare owner families. David would go on to develop a significant amount of real estate around the country including dude ranches, beach front properties, ski resorts and ultimately a complete renovation and rebrand of the former Las Vegas Hilton into Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino – a 2,800 room fully integrated casino resort.

David’s immense energy and creativity were not limited to hospitality; his other incredibly successful ventures include insurance, acclaimed and award-winning restaurants and retail outlets. In 2000, David married his wife Jacqueline (Mallery) Siegel to whom he would be married for almost twenty-five years and together they had seven children – Victoria, David, Daniel, Deborah, Drew, Jacqueline & Jordan.

On a personal level, David was an incredible friend, keeping many relationships throughout his entire life. He kept the same two best friends since early grade school Fred Wasserman and Davis Pere.

David took his energy and caring well beyond his business enterprises. He was an energetic and caring father and husband, the zealously committed founder of the Victoria’s Voice Foundation created to honor his late daughter Victoria and Board Chair of the Westgate Foundation that has collectively provided tens of millions of dollars to help communities across the country. David was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Florida A&M University and the American Resort Developers Association’s ACE Philanthropy Award – the highest award for his work in community service. In 1996, he was selected by Ernst & Young as the Entrepreneur of the Year for the State of Florida, and in 2013 David was inducted into the Central Florida Hospitality Hall of Fame by the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

David’s spirit lives on in the thousands of lives he touched from the companies he created the hospitality he enabled, the charities and communities he supported, the important policy issues he helped shape, and most of all, he will forever be loved and remembered by his family and the network of extended close friends he maintained throughout his life. David’s life was a force of nature

David was predeceased by his daughter Victoria Siegel, his oldest son Steven Siegel, his brother Norman Siegel and his parents Sydney & Sadelle Siegel. He is survived by his wife Jacqueline Siegel; daughters Stacey Siegel, Valerie Drinkwater, Deborah Siegel, Jacqueline Siegel and Jordan Siegel; sons Richard Siegel, David Siegel, Daniel Siegel and Drew Siegel; stepdaughters Kelly Hite and Janet Maland; twelve grandchildren and step grandchildren; and brother Barry Siegel.

Services will be held at First Baptist Church of Orlando on Friday, April 11 at 4:30pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Victoria Siegel Foundation to further David’s battle against the drug pandemic that claimed the life of his beautiful daughter Victoria. Please go to www.victoriasiegelfoundation.org