Arthur Erich Haas was born on April 30, 1884 in Brno, Czech Republic. He graduated from the German High School in Brno in 1902. That year he began his college studies in mathematics and physics at the universities of Vienna and Göttingen. In 1906 he received his doctorate with his dissertation on “Ancient Theories of Light”. In 1909 he wrote his first habilitation thesis, “The History of the Development of the Law of Energy Conservation,” which was... rejected. He earned his law degree in 1911. In 1912 he received habilitation with his thesis “Gleichgewichtslagen von Elektronengruppen in einer äquivalenten Kugel von homogener positiver Elektrizität” and became a professor of the history of physics at the University of Leipzig. From 1923 to 1935 he taught physics at the University of Vienna. In 1924 he was a visiting professor at the University College in London. In 1927 and 1935, through the invitation of the Institute of International Education, Haas gave lectures at many universities and colleges in North America. In 1935 Haas emigrated with his family to the United States and was initially a guest lecturer at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. He married Emma Beatrice Haas (nee Huber) in 1924. They had two sons, Arthur Gustav and Georg Arthur Haas. In 1936 he became professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame. He remained there until his death on February 20, 1941.

Emma Beatrice Haas (nee Huber) was born on July 11, 1896 in Munich, Germany. In 1910 she finished her middle school and then attended a secondary school for another two years, intending to become a teacher. In 1914, Emma was invited to study at St. Xavier College in Chicago by a nun from that school whom she had met in Munich. From September 1915 until 1922 she stayed at St. Xavier. On the advice of the nuns at St. Xavier, Emma entered the order in... 1917 to avoid possible internment in the United States after Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany. In 1922, deciding not to become a nun, she left St. Xavier and returned to Germany. In 1924 she moved to Vienna with the intention of studying architecture and design. To make some extra money, she gave lectures about the United States and life in America. One of these lectures was attended by Arthur Haas. After a short courtship they were married in 1924. They had two sons, Arthur Gustav and Georg Arthur Haas. The family emigrated to the United States in 1935. After her husband’s death, Emma Haas became an archivist for the University of Notre Dame Archives in 1942. In 1944 she began work at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and also translated German documents for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In 1950, she was sent to Germany to work for the CIA. She retired from the CIA in 1960. She eventually settled in Alexandria, Virginia where she died in March of 1985.

Otto Heinrich Haas was born on March 28, 1887 in Brno, Czech Republic. He graduated high school in 1905 and began studies at the University of Vienna in the fall of the same year. He graduated in 1910 with a law degree. He then did his compulsory service with the military in 1910 and joined his father’s law practice after that. He started to take classes in geology in 1905 but on the insistence of his father he switched to law. But in 1914 he received... his doctorate in geology while working as a lawyer at the same time. In the fall of 1914, he joined the Austrian army and fought during the First World War in Galicia, Romania, and Italy. In 1919 he married Margarete Franziska Hirsch. They had three children: Gabriele, Dorothea, and Adolf. In 1939 Otto and his wife followed two of their three children and emigrated to England. He worked in the British Museum until the family was able to leave for the United States in 1939 to join their oldest daughter Gabriele in Boston. He first worked for the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, then the Field Museum in Chicago in 1940. In the fall of 1940, he started to work for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He retired from this position in 1956, then worked for the International Petroleum Company of Colombia and the National Mining School in Medellin. After that he worked as a visiting professor at Vassar College and for three years at Hofstra University. In 1960 he moved to Reno, Nevada and became Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Mackay School of Mines until 1966. He was appointed Curator of Paleontology. In 1969, his daughter Dorothea was killed in her sleep in Chicago, where she worked as nun of the order of the Little Sisters of Jesus. Otto continued working at the Mackay School of Mines in Reno until his death in 1976.

Arthur Gustav Haas was born in Vienna, Austria on July 21, 1925. He was the first child of Arthur E. Haas and his wife Emma. In 1935 the family emigrated to the United States. As a student at the University of Notre Dame, he enlisted in the Navy ROTC in 1943. In 1945 he received his Bachelor of Arts in Naval Science and in 1949 his Master of Arts. He entered the doctoral program for history at the University of Chicago. In 1961 he received his doctorate.... For several years he did graduate research in Mainz, Germany. In 1963 he was offered a position in the history department at the University of Tennessee. He taught classes in Western Civilization, Austrian and German history, and other subjects. He was also the Haas family historian who dealt with researchers who were interested in the work of his father, Arthur E. Haas. He died on February 23, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

George (Georg) Arthur Haas was born in Vienna, Austria on September 26, 1926. He was the second child of Arthur E. Haas and his wife Emma. In 1935 the family emigrated to the United States. George Haas received his doctorate in physics from the University of Notre Dame after serving on United States Navy submarines for two years. In 1951 he joined the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he made significant contributions to Navy... cathode technology and developed new electronic systems for the Department of Defense. He was chosen by Notre Dame as one of its most distinguished graduates in science at a 100th year anniversary event. In 1985 he was awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He died on February 10, 2018 in McLeigh, Virginia.