Ray Hahn

Wabash Valley profiles : a series of tributes to hometown heroes who have made a difference

Description:	One typed page including photograph; biography of Raymond H. Hahn, retail merchant and community leader in Terre Haute, Indiana. WABASHP R OFIA hometown h heroes who h difference. A seriies of ttributes tto h f ib t t h have made a diff dVALLEYL E SRay Hahnnative of Chicago, retail merchant Raymond H. Hahn embraced Terre Haute, becoming a popular community leader. The only son of Louis C. and Marie Hahn, Ray was born Jan. 10, 1910. The son of a German immigrant, Louis worked as a bookbinder and then as a calibrator at a machine shop. Upon graduating from high school, Ray became a shoe salesman. While fitting shoes for children at a Cook County orphanage, he realized the potential damage caused by ill-fitted shoes. Thereafter, Hahn was devoted to providing shoe care. On Oct. 14, 1932, he married the former Adelaide Erna Kaiser. In 1939 the couple and sons Rod and Richard relocated to Terre Haute, where Hahn associated with Rahe O. Hornung at Hornungs Shoes, a business founded in 1893 by Otto C. Hornung and Jacob Bernheimer. The store was renamed Hornung & Hahn in 1952 and four years later was one of the first retailers to move to Meadows Shopping Center. In 1967 it became Hahns Shoes. Meanwhile, Ray gave generously to the community where he earned a livelihood. A talented musician, Hahn was a warrant officer in the Civil Air Patrol and served as its band director and instructor. A long-time director of the Vigo County chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, he was both campaign chairman and president. A board member of the Indiana Savings, Loan & Building Association and the Florence Crittenton Home, he headed fundraising efforts for the Vigo County Health Association and the Vigo County Association for Mental Health. For more than eight years he was a Terre Haute Public School Board member, serving one term as president. He was vice chairman of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce; president of the Associated Retailers, Terre Haute Association of Credit Men, Cruft School Parent-Teacher Association and Terre Haute Exchange Club; and co-founder and first president of the Terre Haute Little League. He also was deacon, trustee and choir director of Immanuel Lutheran Church. While president of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce in 1958 and 1959, Hahn received the Terre Haute Jaycees Good Government Award. Yet as the Republican candidate for mayor in 1959, he was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat incumbent Ralph Tucker. Ray and Adelaide raised seven children. Besides Rod, who died in 1988, and Richard, now a professor of speech at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Ga., there were five daughters: Linda Thiesz of Terre Haute; Holly Jane Hahn of Bradford, Ohio, who died May 1, 2005; Cheryl Hahn Humphrey of Allyn, Wash.; Carol Wood of Danville, Ind.; and Brenda Sue Greene of Rensselaer, Ind. The Ray and Adelaide Hahn Memorial Scholarship at Indiana State University, where the Hahn children matriculated, is awarded annually to a student with at least three children in the family. Ray Hahn died on May 9, 1987, at age 77, and Adelaide died on Jan. 19, 1997.AAlways Close to Homewww.first-online.com MEMBER FDICARTSILLIANA LUNCHTIME CONCERT SERIES Sponsored by First Financial BankSecond in a Series of Friday ConcertsSept.1FREE LIVE MUSIC Bring your lunch and hear Two-Way Radio performN o o n to 1:30 p.m. Crossroads Plaza Stage(in front of parking garage on Wabash)
Origin:	2006-08-30
Created By:	McCormick, Mike
Publisher:	Terre Haute Tribune-Star
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/vchs/id/1543
Collection:	Vigo County Historical Society
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Hahn, Raymond H., 1910-1987 Stores & shops Shoe industry People Business & Industry

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