Building A Fitness Empire

By Author: allan
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Driving an underpowered Rambler that had difficulty climbing hills when the air conditioning was on,- Mel Zuckerman1 pulled into Tucson on a blistering August morning in 1958 with less than $2,000 to his name. With no job, no place to live and an apprehensive wife pregnant with their second child, he knew he was about to take a very big risk.

But almost instantly, Zuckerman knew he landed home. He had checked out Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, but no city captivated him quite like Tucson. Zuckerman was smitten.

In yet another example of the perpetual shelf-life of Horace Greeley's advice to young American men to "go West," Zuckerman arrived in Tucson poised to start a new life. In ways he never could have imagined growing up poor and sickly in Hackensack8, N.J., he succeeded.

Zuckerman not only found what he was looking for in Tucson, he found things for which he didn't even he was looking. He remade himself here - twice, first as a homebuilder and then as the proprietor of Canyon Ranch, the inter-nationally renowned health resort he and his wife, Enid, started 21 years ago.
"I picked Tucson, ...
... Tucson picked me," Zuckerman quips.

Tucked away on 70 acres in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Canyon Ranch is a quiet, almost unnoticeable force in Tucson. Like the smell of greasewood" after a summer shower, its evidence is only occasionally discern able.

But make no mistake. Canyon Ranch is a force. Few if any Tucson-based businesses are as well-known and we 11-respected outside of Tucson as Zuckerman's resort.

Able to accommodate only 241 guests (the Westin La Paloma has room for nearly 1,000), Canyon Ranch wins praise from all quarters. It typically ranks high in reader surveys conducted by national magazines such as Shape, Gourmet, Travel Samp; Leisure, and Conde Nast Traveler. Last year, the Arts & amp; Entertainment cable network said Canyon Ranch was among the nation's top 10 spas. The year before, the Harlequin Romance Report said it was the nation's No. 1 spa for couples.

The direct economic impact Canyon Ranch has on Tucson is perhaps most obvious in the ranch's 915 full- and part-time employees. A few years ago, it became apparent in the $10 million gift the Zuckermans gave the University of Arizona to establish a college of public health.
But the copious national attention directed toward Canyon Ranch means Tucson is basking in the limelight as well. " That translates into a profound indirect economic impact. This point is not lost on Zuckerman, a trained accountant. Still, when he talks about Canyon Ranch, Zuckerman does so in personal terms. It's less a business than a life-defining event.

"Canyon Ranch has given me a great sense of purpose," he says. "It's al-lowed me to feel I'm a person of value that I've contributed to mankind. I feel that when I leave this world I will have left it a better place."
Zuckerman has no plans to leave either the ranch or "this world" any time soon. Now 72, he's only just begun to contemplate reducing his workload. He doesn't like the word retirement. "I don't ever want to retire," he says.

Zuckerman regularly talks to ranch guests about " living younger longer" and is an excellent example of someone who practices what he preaches. When he was in his 40s, Zuckerman says he had the body of a 70 year old. Today, thanks to a series of dramatic "lifestyle" changes, it's like he's in his 40s.
Zuckerman's own story, in fact, is what makes the Canyon Ranch success story so interesting. As a child growing up during the Depression, Zuckerman suffered from asthma and low self-esteem. '5 His parents were so protective, he retreated into a world of books and comic books. They were so poor, they couldn't come up with16 $ 20 to buy him a bicycle. Being Jewish in a town with few Jews added another layer of insecurity.

"I lived in a world of fantasy," he recalls. "When you're told that you cant do anything because you're going to get sick if you do it, you become a loner. When I was in junior high school I got the award for having read the most books from the library. That's all I did. "After moving to Tucson, Zuckerman says he helped the fantasies of others come true as a home builder. The name of his company was Harmony Homes—no small coincidence, he says, given that the importance of living a harmonious life is what Canyon Ranch is all about.Zuckerman acknowledges that the "seduction" of a desert retreat where guests are made to feel like the center of the universe helps account for the ranch's appeal.

It could be argued that in Canyon Ranch, Zuckerman has succeeded in creating yet another fantasy world. Perhaps he has even given some a new reason to follow Horace Greeley's advice.