Evelyn Danzig Haas

Evelyn D. Haas (1917 – February 3, 2010) was a prominent San Francisco Bay Area civic leader and philanthropist. She was the co-founder of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Under the leadership of Evelyn and her husband, Walter A. Haas, Jr., the Fund contributed more than $364 million to hundreds of Bay Area cultural, civic, and social service organizations.

Biography

Born Evelyn Danzig in 1917, she grew up in New York City and graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she developed her love of art.^[1] She met her future husband, Walter A. Haas, Jr., while he was attending Harvard Business School. They married and moved to San Francisco in 1940, where they raised their three children: Robert D. Haas, Betsy Haas Eisenhardt, and Walter J. Haas.

Evelyn's brother Jerome Alan Danzig was married to tennis star Sarah Palfrey.

Philanthropy

Haas served on the board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.^[2] She and her husband helped raise the $95 million needed to build the museum’s facility^[3] in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) area; it opened in 1995.

Haas was involved in the San Francisco Symphony for more than 40 years and ultimately became a Life Governor of the institution. The Haas, Jr. Fund provided the symphony with a $10 million lead challenge grant for the creation of Keeping Score, an initiative anchored by a PBS television series aimed at “bringing the power and joy of classical music” to millions of Americans’ homes and schools.^[4]

Haas was a great lover of the outdoors.^[5] She and her family spearheaded the restoration of Crissy Field, a former military base, into a 100-acre urban national park.^[6]

Haas also was an avid fly fisher—a hobby she picked up from her husband. She co-authored a book with Gwen Cooper, Wade a Little Deeper, Dear: A Woman's Guide to Fly Fishing in 1979, which became a classic among fly fishers. It was one of the first books to encourage women to take up the sport.

Haas was an advocate for the San Francisco Chronicle’s annual Season of Sharing Fund, which her husband first launched in partnership with the newspaper in 1986. After Walter’s death in 1995, Haas became even more active in the campaign as one of its most vocal proponents, writing personal letters each year to urge hundreds of friends and colleagues to contribute to the cause.^[7]

Personal life

She had three children with her husband Walter A. Haas Jr.: Robert D. Haas, former chairman and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. who is married to Colleen Gershon Haas; philanthropist Betsy Haas Eisenhardt who is married to Roy Eisenhardt; and Walter J. Haas, co-chairman of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and former chairman and CEO of the Oakland Athletics, who is married to Julie Salles Haas.^[8] Funeral services were held at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.^[8]

References

External links

• Archive.org "Fine arts and family : oral history transcript : the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, philanthropy, writing, and Haas family memories / 1997"
• Daily Californian obituary
• New York Times obituary