Peter E. Haas Sr., 86; Led Levi Strauss in Eras of Social and Economic Change

Peter E. Haas Sr., who as a leader and family member of Levi Strauss & Co. helped turn the San Francisco company into the world’s best-known jeans maker and became an early proponent of corporate social responsibility, has died, the company said.

Haas, a great-grandnephew of company founder Levi Strauss, died Saturday in San Francisco of natural causes. He was 86.

Haas, a former chief executive of the San Francisco company, is credited with leading its financial and manufacturing operations during a career that spanned six decades. He was president when Levi Strauss went public in 1971 and chairman when family members reclaimed the company in a leveraged buyout in 1985.

He resigned his position on the board last year, and his wife, Miriam, took his seat. Haas, who with a 37% stake was the largest Levi shareholder, continued to be involved with the company until his death, spokesman Jeffrey Beckman said.

For decades, the executive and his brother Walter A. Haas Jr., also deceased, managed the business together, weaving corporate management with social responsibility.

Peter Haas helped integrate apparel factories in the United States before the civil rights movement, the company said. As Levi expanded its manufacturing operations in the South in the 1950s, Haas told local leaders that his company would open factories in their communities only if African American and white workers were granted equal status.

“He played a very progressive role in race relations in the South,” said Harley Shaiken, a UC Berkeley professor and labor expert. “He used Levi’s economic leverage to bring about social change in a way that was not easy but very important.”

Time magazine named the brothers “Leaders of Tomorrow” in 1953.

As a result of Peter Haas’ equal-opportunity efforts, San Francisco Mayor George Christopher appointed him to the city’s Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1957.

Haas also was known for his philanthropic and community activities. He and his family donated millions of dollars to a wide range of social, cultural and religious causes, the company said.

Starting in 1993, he spearheaded a drive that ultimately raised $1.44 billion for UC Berkeley. Most recently, Haas served as a trustee of the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

“Throughout his career and in his personal life, my uncle Peter distinguished himself with his strong values and generosity,” Levi Chairman Robert D. Haas said.

Peter Haas was born in San Francisco in 1918 to Elise Stern Haas, a patron of Bay Area cultural and civic organizations, and Walter A. Haas Sr., then president of Levi Strauss.

Initially resistant to joining the family business, Peter Haas planned to be an engineer. But after two years at UC Berkeley, he began focusing on economics. He went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Business School in 1943.

After graduation, Haas worked as a riveter for Hammond Aircraft. In 1945 he married his first wife, Josephine Baum. Also that year, he signed on with the family business, learning to make jeans at the Valencia Street factory in San Francisco. Moving on to the headquarters, Haas focused on production, distribution and other matters.

The factory and its workers became one of his key interests, Robert Haas said, leading him to spend time in the company’s manufacturing plants across the country and eventually around the globe. His uncle was happiest “walking the floor of a plant and greeting people,” Robert Haas said.

During the 1960s and ‘70s, Peter Haas pushed to improve productivity in an attempt to give Levi an advantage over its competitors, Robert Haas said. Later, as the company began moving production outside the U.S., he looked for more efficient ways to run the domestic plants in hopes of forestalling closures.

Ultimately, however, Levi Strauss closed all its North American manufacturing operations.

“He reluctantly supported the decision, recognizing that economic circumstances had changed,” Robert Haas said.

In addition to his wife, Miriam, whom he married in 1981, Peter Haas is survived by his son, Peter Jr.; daughter, Margaret Haas; stepsons, Ari Lurie and Daniel Lurie; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service was scheduled for today at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.