STRAUSS, LEVI

STRAUSS, LEVI (1829–1902), U.S. garment manufacturer and philanthropist. A native of Bavaria, Germany, Strauss followed his two brothers to New York in 1848. In 1850, during the gold rush, he started a dry goods business in Sacramento, California, and three years later in San Francisco. He began to manufacture pants from blue denim, reinforced with copper rivets, which under the trademark "Levis" became popular with gold miners. They were taken up by Western farmers and, as the years went by, were sold to an ever-widening public. By the mid-20th century they were being marketed all over the world. Strauss, a bachelor, took first his brothers, then his brother-in-law, David Stern, and finally the latter's four sons into partnership in Levi Strauss & Co. A multimillionaire, he assumed directorship of a bank, an insurance company, wool mills, and the San Francisco Board of Trade. His charities included scholarships at the University of California, and he left large sums to Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic orphanages. He was a member of Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco. In 1968, with WALTER A. HAAS, SR. (1889–1979), a grandnephew of Strauss's, as chairman of the board, and his sons WALTER A., JR. (1916–1995), president, and PETER E. (1918– ), executive vice president, Levi Strauss & Co.'s sales topped $200 million. The owners have participated in local and national public and charitable activities, both general and Jewish. In 1953 Walter and his wife established the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, dedicated to helping disadvantaged youths, families, and the elderly, reducing hunger and homelessness, and encouraging volunteerism and philanthropy. Peter was the director of the Levi Strauss Foundation and vice president of the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund. The Levi Strauss firm has been a leader in "equal opportunity" employment and actively encourages minority group enterprises in the ghettos. By 1995 the company had become the largest brand-name clothing manufacturer in the world, with 36,000 employees and an annual revenue of $6.1 billion. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Dunwoody, in: National Jewish Monthly, 82 (Nov. 1967). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Dru, The First Blue Jeans (1978); E. Cray, Levi's (1978); M. Goldish, Levi Strauss: Blue Jean Tycoon (1993); K. McDonough and L. Downey, This Is a Pair of Levi's Jeans (1995); C. Ford, Levi Strauss: The Man behind Blue Jeans (2004). (Hanns G. Reissner / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)