Titus Haffa*
Class of 1963
- Chairman Webcor, Inc.
Serve the needs of others, and you serve yourself well.
Titus Haffa supported his mother and three sisters after his father's death when he was nine years old. He sold newspapers and performed various jobs to keep the family intact.
His continuous drive paid off, and by 1963 he was operating a $100 million business, Webcor, Inc. The company was less than a block from his boyhood newspaper stand and the small frame home in which he was born. The company manufactured high-fidelity products, electrical housewares, and military electronics.
Haffa was Lutheran but contributed generously to Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant churches and made donations to various hospitals. When a synagogue was bombed in Chicago, he spearheaded a drive to rebuild it. Learning that the training of U.S. engineers was in danger of being outdistanced by the Soviets, he gave $100,000 to the Illinois Institute of Technology.