Obituary: Peter Haas snr

* Peter Haas snr, president of Levi Strauss & Co, racial desegregation promoter. Dies age 86.

Peter Haas snr, who took over the family-owned Levi Strauss & Co with his brother and helped build it into a socially conscious clothing empire, has died. He was 86.

A great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, Haas teamed up with his older brother, Walter A Haas jnr, in 1958 and transformed the small maker of Western apparel into one of the world's most famous clothing brands.

As president of the company, Haas was a strong proponent of corporate social responsibility and worked toward racial desegregation of apparel factories during the late 1940s and 1950s.

When the company sought to expand to the South, Haas told local officials that Levi Strauss would only open manufacturing plants there if its black workers were granted equal status with whites.