COEUR d’ALENE — It was Jerry Jaeger’s first day on the job as a 22-year-old managing director of two motels and things weren’t going well. Not at all.

For starters, Jaeger had asked for a wake-up call to be ready to roll. The call never came. When he confronted the front desk clerk at the North Shore, her reply was, “I just didn’t get to it.”

Fuming, Jaeger was tempted to fire her on the spot, but reconsidered. It was, after all, his first day.

Jaeger moved on to his office when a hulking figure in bib overalls appeared in the doorway. He introduced himself as Henry Wenig, the egg guy, and insisted he be paid $17.46 or no eggs would be delivered.

Jaeger asked the same front desk clerk whom he’d just admonished to pay Wenig. She opened the till and said there wasn’t enough cash.

Changes were clearly needed, and big changes would be coming relatively quickly.

“Things were pretty tough. But you just put your head down and just go for it,” said the 68-year-old father of two. “We worked pretty hard.”

What was then Western Frontiers, Inc., became Hagadone Hospitality Co. and the North Shore would be transformed into the nationally renowned Coeur d’Alene Resort. And Jaeger would become president and co-owner of Hagadone Hospitality Co., a multi-faceted empire based in a little lakeside tourist town.

Jaeger grew up in Ritzville, Wash., where his parents bought a restaurant, the Circle T, from Bob Templin, who moved to Coeur d’Alene in the mid-1950s to build and operate the 26-room Templin’s Waterfront Lodge near where The Resort clock tower is now located.

In the early ’60s, Templin and friend and attorney Bill Reagan decided to take on a more ambitious project. They formed Western Frontiers, acquired more waterfront property near Templin’s lodge and began plans to build the 42-room North Shore motel and convention center.

Meanwhile, Templin and Reagan contacted Jaeger’s parents, Joseph and Maureen, with an offer for them to buy into the company and manage the new facility. They agreed and moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1963.

Jaeger opted to stay behind in Ritzville to finish high school and help his sister run the Circle T. Then he got a “kick in the ass” — literally — that motivated him to move to Coeur d’Alene.

Jaeger drove at one point to Coeur d’Alene to meet with the Western Frontiers team for dinner at Templin’s. He announced during the evening that he had no plans to leave his high school buddies and the cozy confines of Ritzville any time soon.

Reagan then suggested Jaeger join him for a walk. They left the restaurant and Reagan kicked Jaeger squarely in the ass, demanding that he support his parents in their endeavor. After pacing privately for a few minutes, Jaeger returned to the restaurant and said he had changed his mind. He would be moving.

“That was a kick that changed my life for good,” he said.

Partly because he fell in love with Coeur d’Alene, and more importantly because he enrolled as a junior at Immaculate Heart of Mary High School where he fell in love with a third-generation Coeur d’Alene native named Ellen Matson.

During his final high school years, Jaeger worked in a number of capacities at the North Shore including as a bellman for Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart.

He remembers watching the landmark Desert Hotel burn to the ground and the excitement of the Diamond Cup hydroplane races.

His tutelage in the hospitality business began at the Circle T in Ritzville where he washed dishes and did a little cooking. Jaeger wasn’t tall enough then to reach the dishwashing equipment so they provided him with a wooden box to stand on. Jaeger still keeps that box in his office at the Hagadone corporate headquarters as a memento.

Jaeger graduated from IHM, married Ellen in 1967 and enrolled at Washington State University as a student of hotel and restaurant administration.

Two months later, his father, who was serving as vice president of Western Frontiers, died in an airplane accident.

“It was a very painful thing. It always is,” Jaeger said.

It would also be a life-changer for Jaeger, who ultimately became a key component of the Hagadone Corp.

But first he returned to WSU, earned his degree and went to work for the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Then came a call from Templin and Reagan, telling Jaeger it was time to come home. He agreed.

“We always knew we wanted to raise our kids in Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “Templin was still there and ran the company and I worked with him. I learned a great deal from him.”

Jaeger occupied the desk of his father, which hadn’t been touched since his death.

“The first day I walked into my dad’s office it was like memory lane. I opened the drawers and there were things in there that I’d seen years ago,” he said.

He still uses a checkbook cover that he found in the desk on that day in 1971.

Jaeger soon discovered he was not only his father’s successor but he was on an unanticipated fast-track in an economically decaying community that needed a shot of adrenaline.

First came the seven-story expansion of the North Shore, crowned by the popular Cloud Nine restaurant in 1973. Ten years later, Templin and Reagan announced they wanted to sell out and retire.

The logical choice for a buyer was newspaper chain owner Duane Hagadone, said Jaeger, because of his vision and resources. Hagadone checked the books and made an offer.

A struggle ensued when Templin and Reagan reconsidered their retirement plans, but Hagadone and Jaeger ultimately wound up with the assets of Western Frontiers.

The following day, June 6, 1983, Hagadone, Jaeger and architect Bob Nelson met outside the North Shore to discuss plans to transform the facility into an 18-story, 338-room luxury hotel. Construction began 14 months later, and The Coeur d’Alene Resort opened for business in May 1986 amid much fanfare.

“It was a big challenge and a big risk,” said Jaeger.

Forbes Magazine called The Resort “Idaho’s biggest white elephant” and predicted it would fail in five years. You can’t make that kind of investment “in the middle of nowhere,” it said.

But Coeur d’Alene was quickly emerging as a major tourist destination and could no longer be considered the middle of nowhere.

The Hagadone Corp.’s next project was The Resort Golf Course.

Jaeger remembers standing with Hagadone near the Potlatch mill property where the golf course would be built. Hagadone pointed to the shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene and asked Jaeger what he saw there.

“A log boom,” Jaeger replied.

“I see a floating green” said Hagadone.

Jaeger said his tenure at the helm of Hagadone Hospitality has been rewarding and memorable. He has hosted numerous celebrities over the years, including Clint Eastwood, Ronald Reagan, Rosie O’Donnell, Reba McEntire, Sarah Palin, Bill Russell, Joe Theismann and Wayne Gretzky.

“It’s been a fascinating time,” he said.

Jaeger has no immediate plans to retire. For now, he will continue to oversee the 1,800 employees he credits for the company’s success — and ensure there’s enough money in the till to pay Henry Wenig in case he ever shows up again with his eggs. But that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Jaeger said he is as ensconced now in Coeur d’Alene as he was as a teenager in Ritzville and never plans to leave.

“We love Coeur d’Alene. It’s a very special place, he said. “It’s all worked out very well.”

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Know a longtime local we should feature? Send your suggestions to Ric Clarke at clarke_ric@yahoo.com.