John C. Haas

John Charles Haas (May 22, 1918 – April 2, 2011) was an American businessman and philanthropist, at one time considered the second richest man in Philadelphia. He was the chairman of global chemical company Rohm and Haas from 1974 to 1978. Under his leadership, the family's William Penn Foundation became a $2 billion grantmaking institution, ranking as one of the largest such institutions in the United States. It subsequently became a more broadly based chemical and plastics company. He was named vice chairman of the board in 1959. After his father's death in 1960, Haas became executive vice president, and his brother F. Otto Haas became president and chief executive officer. Haas became chairman in 1974, and served as chairman from 1974 to 1978.

Philanthropy In 1960,

Throughout his life Haas was active with many charitable organizations, including the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Philadelphia, the Natural Lands Trust, and the Opportunities Industrialization Center of America, established by Baptist civil rights leader Leon Sullivan. As a civic leader, Haas helped to found the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in 1976, served on the board of governors of Temple University Health System, and was a trustee emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The John C. Haas Archive of Science and Business at the Chemical Heritage Foundation is named in his honor, and includes the Rohm and Haas Company archives.

Haas and his brother F. Otto Haas received the Edward Powell Memorial Award in 1987 for their philanthropic work in Philadelphia. They donated the award's cash prize to the Philadelphia Committee for the Homeless. Haas was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1992.

Political activities

Haas was an early opponent of the Vietnam War.

Conservation He was also an active proponent of conservation. In 2009 he and his wife gave a 160-acre hamlet known as Waterloo Mills, in Easttown Township, Chester County, to the Brandywine Conservancy for permanent preservation. They also entrusted 200 acres near Waterloo Mills to the Conservancy. Another 35 acres, with a mansion, were given to Episcopal Academy for a Lower School campus.

Later life Haas died of natural causes on April 2, 2011, at the age of 92.