McCarthy served on several boards, including the South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, and South Lake Tahoe Board of Realtors, was a past president of the South Lake Tahoe Lodging Association, and a past director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.
The Stardust Lodge was built in 1966, and became a time-share resort known as the Stardust Vacation Club in 1986 after receiving a conversion permit from the City.
The Stardust Vacation Club is organized as a non-profit mutual benefit corporation, which holds the Stardust Lodge in trust for the benefit of Stardust time-share owners. Individual time-share owners purchase the right to use a certain type of room at the Stardust Lodge, for one week every year, in perpetuity. The time-share owners elect the Vacation Club’s Board of Directors, which is responsible for managing the Club.
Edward Joseph McCarthy (1921-2014) was a Navy veteran from San Francisco who moved to South Lake Tahoe in 1966 to start a new career in real estate. He was the sole owner of Sierra-Nevada Realty, Inc., for many years selling homes, commercial properties, and hotels. In the 1980s, he and his partner, Merrill Higham, turned two properties they owned into timeshare resorts: the Stardust Lodge and the Americana Village.