BUSINESS Theaters D Sunday, July 8, 2007 Marriott. Root beer roots A Weber farm boy's soft-drink stand that gave birth to a hotel empire is long gone. But the Marriotts cling to the values it represents, even in a financial world where hip trumps wholesome. BY MICHAEL ROSENWALD The Washington Post Doris Schaefgen has a walkie-talkie in her hand as she hustles around the glass-domed lobby of the Paris Marriott Hotel on the Champs-Elysees. She adjusts the chairs in front of the bar. She straightens menu cards on little lounge tables nearby. Someone drops a newspaper while waiting to check in; she rushes to pick it up. And then, satisfied that everything in the lobby is just right, she heads to the top of a set of escalators and waits. Hanging on the wall above her shoulder: a portrait of two men dressed in dark suits, white shirts and red ties. The older of the men, with sharp gray hair, is J. Willard Marriott, the son of Weber County sheepherders who founded the company in 1927 with a tiny root beer stand in Washtion, he won't read and relax for more than a week. After that, she says, he disappears to go see hotels. He visits about 300 a year, both his own and those of his competitors. In short, he still loves what he's doing, and says he continues to feel well, despite three heart attacks in 1989. He had coronary bypass surgery and now keeps in shape with nightly workouts on a treadmill. "At age 75, he's got the vigor and the capacity of a man a couple decades younger," says Fred Malek, the former Nixon aide who owns several of the company's hotels. But, of course, the situation is more complicated than that. For starters, Marriott can be stubborn, say people who know him. Why should he retire at age 75? Gordon B. Hinckley, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Marriott is a high-ranking leader, is 97. John McCain is running for president at 70. Murdoch,