About Haas
The School and the Haas Family
The business school at UC Berkeley has a long and close association with the Haas family, who are relatives of Levi Strauss, the co-originator of the blue jean and founder of San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. For over a century, this great California family has earned a stellar reputation through its leadership in socially responsible business, philanthropy, and community service. The family’s commitment to the university began with Levi Strauss himself, who endowed 28 Berkeley scholarships in 1897.
Walter A. Haas, Sr., for whom the school is named, graduated from Berkeley’s College of Commerce in 1910. His long association with Levi Strauss & Co. began in 1914 when he married Elise Stern, the founder’s grandniece and daughter of the firm’s president, Sigmund Stern. After military service in World War I, he began his career at Levi Strauss in 1919, serving as president from 1928 until 1955, and as chairman until 1970. He led the business school’s first advisory council under Dean E. T. Grether. Until his death in 1979, he was a benefactor to the school, as well as a counselor and friend of the deans who succeeded Grether.
The cornerstone contribution for the campaign to raise the
money for the school’s current building came from the
children of Walter A. Haas, Sr. The gift from Walter Haas,
Jr., BA 37, Peter Haas, BA 40, and Rhoda Haas Goldman, BA
46—then the largest in the history of the Berkeley campus—prompted
the university to rename the business school in honor of their
father. Speaking on behalf of the family, Rhoda Haas Goldman
said, “All of us have been devoted to Berkeley, no one
more so than our father. He would be most pleased to know
that his family is continuing his legacy of support to the
university he so dearly loved.”
