I am not sure what decade Plaino references in his post about La Quinta but at one point, well into the 80's, La Quinta was a part of Landmark, which was, if I'm not mistaken, the largest developer of resorts in the U.S. before the Feds broke it up in the aftermath of the S&L scandal. Landmark was owned by Ardmore native Gerry Barton. He and his wife Jo graduated #1 & #2 in their OU Law class. After Gerry was asked to get out of the insurance business in Oklahoma by state insurance commissioner Joe B. Hunt, he left United Founders Life and moved to Carmel and started Landmark. The corporate emblem was an oak tree and his first development was Oaktree in Edmond. At one time he owned Carmel Valley Ranch Estates, La Quinta, PGA West, Mission Hills,The Palm Beach Polo Club, and others. He developed the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island. When the S&L rules were changed in lieu of the scandal, Gerry was told he had to either divest himself from his properties or his S&L in New Orleans because he had too much of the S&L's money invested in speculative developments. No matter that the business was highly solvent. The rules had changed. Gerry eventually lost everything but he sued the govt. and won in the U.S. Supreme Court but it was a hollow victory because there was nothing left. One of his executives committed suicide over the whole deal. Gerry started all over and has since developed courses in Houston (Meadowbrook Farms), the Rio Grand Valley, Ireland, and Spain. He and Jo now live in Annapolis, Maryland. They graduated from OU undergraduate school in 1952. Jo and my wife were Kappa's at OU although not at the same time and they served as co-rush advisors for the chapter for several years.
The United Founders situation dealt with a business relationship the company had with the Central States Teamsters Fund.
