Hotel magnate and AFL founder Barron Hilton

Hotel magnate, philanthropist and one of the American Football League’s original founders, Barron Hilton, has died at 91.

During 30 years in charge of his family’s Hilton Hotels Corporation, he rapidly expanded the firm – building up the business into one worth billions of dollars.

Born in 1927, Mr Hilton joined the US navy and then worked for 20 years as an entrepreneur before joining his father’s hotel firm as vicepresident in 1954.

He took over as chairman, president and chief executive in 1966 and made a series of property acquisitions and mergers, turning the Hilton Hotels Corporation – now Hilton Worldwide – into a juggernaut.

Mr Hilton was also a member of the so-called Foolish Club, a group of eight businessmen who pooled their resources to form the American Football League – a rival to the National Football League (NFL).

Through this he became the founding owner of the Los Angeles Chargers, which would grow to become one of the most-supported American football clubs in the country.

At the early stage of the new league, club bosses described each other as “foolish” in reference to their commitments to absorb all of the start-up and player fees associated with the project to make it competitive with the long-established NFL.

Mr Hilton later helped steer the merger between the rival organisations in 1966, which in turn led to the annual Super Bowl spectacle.

In 2007 the businessman sold his hotel firm to private equity firm Blackstone, and announced he would donate $1.2 billion (£1bn) to his father’s Conrad N Hilton Foundation, which funds homelessness support, disaster relief and water sanitation.

Earlier this year he announced he was donating a further 97% of his net worth to the cause.

His son Steven, who is now chairman of the charity’s board, said: “The Hilton family mourns the loss of a remarkable man.”

Mr Hilton is survived by his two daughters and six sons, 15 grandchildren – including the reality TV star Paris – and four great-grandchildren.

AP. Barron Hilton has died aged 91.