The legacy left behind by Erivan K. Haub
Erivan K. Haub, a successful German businessman and the man for whom the St. Joe’s business school is named, passed away on March 6.
Haub is survived by his wife, Helga Haub, and his three sons Karl-Erivan, Georg and Christian Haub.
Haub is most known for being a successful entrepreneur and serving as managing director and part owner of the Tengelmann Group, one of the largest privately owned retailers in the world. Tengelmann owned A&P, a grocery store chain, after Haub brought it out of bankruptcy in the 1980s.
“During the war, it was hard to maintain a business, especially a food retail business,” said Joseph DiAngelo, Dean of the Haub School of Business. “He brought that company back after World War II. He was the fifth generation of his family owned business. He was very determined, he was very loyal, and he was very smart.”
Haub came to know and love St. Joe’s when A&P was a part of St. Joe’s food marketing program and a board member asked Haub if he wanted to come to St. Joe’s and see the program.
“Mr. Haub decided one year to have their board of directors meeting here,” DiAngelo said. “Father Rashford came to meet Mr. Haub when he came to the board of directors meeting.”
Nicholas Rashford, S.J. was president of the university at the time, and met Haub at lunch where they came up with a plan to allow Tengelmann employees, who couldn’t come to the states because of immigration laws, to get their education at St. Joe’s while also working for Tengelmann in the United States.
“I said they can come to St. Joes to come to school and we can have part of the schooling be working in your stores,” Rashford said. “So we sat down on the back of napkins and we worked out an executive program for employees of Tengelmann and we laid out the whole idea of me putting together an executive conference room in McShain on the top floor. That was the start of a great friendship.”
Rashford said that Haub was known for being a successful entrepreneur.
“I think he was an innovator, I think he was an entrepreneur,” Rashford said. “He took over his family business as the only surviving heir and didn’t let it bother him. He made it work and let it happen.”
Rashford and Haub became close as Rashford went to visit Haub’s stores in Germany, Italy, Vienna and more. He baptized Haub’s children, who were all born in the United States and through this relationship Haub grew an attraction for St. Joe’s.
With this attraction, Haub donated money in the mid 90s to help build Mandeville Hall and that is when the business school was named after him.
“Allowing us to use their name on the Haub school allowed us to brand the Haub School of Business,” DiAngelo said. “We were able to create an entire quality academic brand for the business school. Not only in the United States, in Europe. In Europe, having the Haub name opens up the doors for us to collaborate with schools in other parts of the world.”
Mark Reed, president of the university, released a statement on March 13 that acknowledged Haub’s accomplishments and appreciated what Haub did for St. Joe’s.
“The Haub Family has generously supported business education at SJU for over 30 years,” Reed said in the statement. “Their generosity and partnership has assisted the Haub School in its transformation to a nationally recognized business school and the entire SJU community is deeply grateful to the Haubs.”
Haub was focused on education because he thought it was a way for people to advance themselves, which is why he was loyal to St. Joe’s, according to DiAngelo.
“He was a wonderful gentleman and he loved St. Joe’s and we will never be able to repay the debt to his family for what they have done for us,” DiAngelo said.