Joseph Koret (1900–1982) was a Russian-born American businessman and philanthropist, who founded the textile company Koret of California and the not-for-profit

Koret Foundation The Koret Foundation is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. Its mission is to strengthen the Bay Area and support the Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel through grantmaking to organizations involved with education, arts a ...

Biography

Koret was born in 1900 to a

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family in

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Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now Ukraine). He immigrated to the United States with his family as a baby in 1901 where he grew up poor on the

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Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Koret moved to

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at age 17, began working for his father's men's clothing company. In 1937 the two founded Koret of California. The company's greatest success arose from its invention in 1961 of Koratron, a new process for

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fabrics that was widely adopted in the

clothing industry Clothing industry or garment industry summarizes the types of trade and industry along the production and value chain of clothing and garments, starting with the textile industry (producers of cotton, wool, fur, and synthetic fibre), embelli ...

, eventually earning

patent license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

revenues from more than 400 manufacturers that were far greater than the company's clothing sales. Due to a series of unsuccessful corporate acquisitions the company was near bankruptcy in 1973, when the Korets convinced their friend, Tad Taube, to take over as CEO. Taube began increasing their fortune through further company growth and successful real estate investment. After a series of expansions, divestitures, and a public offering, Koret of California was sold for $71 million in 1979 to its first patent licensee, Levi Strauss & Company. The company was spun off by Levi's in a LBO in 1986, and after further corporate changes is now an

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-based subsidiary of Kellwood Company, distributing mid-priced clothing to

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s throughout the United States.

Philanthropy and awards

In the late 1970s Taube convinced the Korets, who had no children, to donate their estate to charity, the

. Koret received the community service award of the

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and was to receive the Gates of Jerusalem medal from the State of Israel Bonds but died before he could receive the award.

Personal life

Koret married twice. His first wife was Stephanie Brown, a

immigrant from Romania, whom he married as a teenager; she died in 1978 of

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. In January 1981, he married the personal assistant of his wife, Susan McClain (born Whae Hwa Gee in 1938 in Korea, and widowed from a U.S. Army master sergeant). She converted to

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

. They ran the foundation together with Taube, until Joseph Koret's death in 1982, at which time Susan Koret became chairperson for life with Koret writing "I have given much thought to the future of the Koret Foundation and it is my desire, as well as Susan’s, that she prepare herself to become a director and moving force in the foundation."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koret, Joseph 1900 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American Jews American textile industry businesspeople Burials at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States