- Be was a force.

She was a force in Atlanta, people spoke of her with reverence.

- How would I say this nicely?

She's a badass.

Probably can't use that, but hey, that's what it was.

- Be Haas became a master of what she was doing in philanthropy, because again, she cared very much about the community.

That drive to do good for the community was a major part of her motivation and her innate capability.

- She sort of ruled the family with a, like a steel magnolia.

- Close your purse, put the checkbook up, because Be will talk you right out of it without a doubt.

♪♪ ♪♪ - She was not like any other women I knew, and I don't know, looking back, she wasn't like many other women at all.

- Assertive.

- I said, complex.

- Trailblazer for me.

Brilliant.

- Strategic.

- She wasn't afraid of anything.

- Fearless.

♪♪ - I can't imagine Be coming casual to anything.

I really can't.

She must have for other things, because most times when I saw her, it was in pretty much a corporate setting.

- And she had a commanding presence.

She was a big lady, and she was always well put together, sort of in, maybe a British mystery writer's way, like a tweed suit and heavy stockings.

- She did have a way of sort of glancing over her glasses and she could really reduce any titan of industry to sort of, adolescent status just with a glance.

- She would put these male leaders in their place by giving them the instructions about what they would do and how they would follow up and how they would ask for the gift, and she did it in a way that we all just fell in line.

I don't, it was magic.

- And it was so fascinating to watch her circle around the issues and finally get to the big question, would Woodruff support.

- I mean, how many CEOs open their doors to some woman to waltz in there and explain to them why they need to give the company money away?

But they all responded to her and gave that money.

- At the time, she was the only fundraising consultant in the whole Southeast, and she raised tons and tons of money.

♪♪ - She only did that which she believed in, and that which was just and right, and she insisted that we follow the law to reach the best outcome.

That was Be.

- She lets you know that if you were gonna take on the good things in the community, you needed to help make them happen.

- The underlying reasons why she did what she did was because of her deep care for her community, and that was Atlanta.

♪♪ - She became the matriarch of the fundraising and philanthropy in the community, but she was somebody far beyond just the fundraising process.

She was a civic leader.

- She used to joke around saying that if someone was hired from outside of Atlanta to come to Atlanta to chair, let's say, UPS or something, that within a week, they would be asked to chair a campaign, and she called it paying civic rent.

- To hear the stories of Be and Atlanta's business leaders, and to talk about how she was able to walk into a space that was male dominated, and to claim her space and to own her personhood and to advocate for women, even in the old boys' club is admirable, even at this time and period and space that we're in.

- You think about the Woodruff Arts Center across the street from me.

She was intimately involved in things there.

You think about the universities and colleges around town, organizations around town.

Be was a force to be reckoned with.

- There's not one organization in town that I think she did not touch or impact, and I've said that before, but to her accolades, we could say 200 campaigns, 400 campaigns, I'm not even sure that would even give credit to all that Be did.

♪♪ - She was Woman of the Year in Civic Affairs I think in the '40s, and then in Business in the early '60s, so that mirrored her, her life, and as she shifted from primarily civic and volunteer community to more professional affairs, she had great respect from the business leaders for many years.

I think that everybody detected unimpeachable interest and intentions and motivations, so I love that about her.

♪♪ ♪♪ - I almost think back to that time.

A woman, starting a business?

I don't know for fact, but I can just see her marching into a bank and trying.

You know, there was a time, around that time, it's not like women could get a charge card in their name.

You think about banking industry and the challenges she would've faced as a woman, trying to start a business from ground zero, and she did it.

- And I think that she had to work a little harder to get to know the individuals and to be able to continue to crack their inner sanctums, so to speak, but she did that, she was successful at that.

- There were aspects of Be's life that might have been seen by others as a disadvantage for the time that she came along.

Maybe being Jewish, maybe being a woman.

I don't think either of those things, or really anything, ever held her back.

- She knew a lot about discrimination and sadness in life.

Her husband was an attorney, civil rights attorney, and she had experienced a lot of, she knew about things that were bad.

She followed her faith, she followed her heart, when she found herself widowed, she just realized she would have to take care of her own family, and she turned her service into an extraordinary business and she united civic activism and fundraising.

♪♪ - There were benefits to the city because of the work that she did.

- She also, that's true, but she also let the people behind her know that it was okay to stick your neck out.

- And she trained a lot of people to be able to do this well.

That's why her business has continued to be here.

- I first met Be when there were was a position open at the firm Alexander, O'Neill, Haas, and Martin.

The final test was meeting Be and making sure that I passed inspection with Be.

- I was 23 when I started working with Be.

Fresh outta college, as green as you could imagine, and Be wanted me to understand every aspect of fundraising.

And meetings with her, with the top CEO's in town, they listened to every word, they hung on every word that she would have to say, and as a young 23 year old, seeing this woman conduct herself like she did in front of these men in the '90s was about the most incredible start to a career anyone could have.

- When we had separate offices, I kept a corner that was sort of a, Be corner, and I had a picture of her that I would pretty much acknowledge if I needed either some inspiration or a kick in the pants, I could look up and see her looking back at me, so she was profound in that effect, in that way.

♪♪ - And so I do find myself parroting a lot of Be's lessons and suggestions and exhortations and things like that in my daily work that really derives from working with her all those years.

- We talked on the phone when my daughter you just met, so she's soon to be 25, and she was born with a seizure disorder.

And I called Be, or Be called me to talk about how the baby was, and I told her, and this was something rare and unforeseen and bad, and she said, "Well, there's nothing you won't do for your children, and you're just about to find that out."

I never really thought of her being a mother.

I mean, I'd met, I knew Len Al, and I'd met her son, one son, but the fact that she was giving me motherly advice just kind of blew my mind, but she said, "Don't wait to get your children the help they need.

You don't have to ask."

She said, "You just need to go for the very best, and then the very best will happen."

And then there was a moment of silence, I mean, it was almost like a benediction.

It wasn't that much longer that she left the Earth, but she told me you're gonna be strong as a mom, you're gonna get your children the help they need, you're not gonna wait in line, you're gonna go, and she said, "If there's any of these doctors you need to ask to put you at the front of the line, you do that.

Don't you take a second seat," or something like that.

It was just quite a remarkable... She gave me instructions, yeah.

I think that was really the last phone conversation I had with her.

- I don't know whether that's her 88th or 89th birthday.

So we had a cake for her out on this porch, and we're filming it on a video.

So she's cutting the cake and putting it on the paper plates to pass out, and each time she cuts the cake and puts it on the plate, she is cleaning the knife with her finger and then licking her finger and then cutting the next piece of cake with the clean knife, and then doing the same thing, and we called her out on it and she said, "Oh, don't be ridiculous, I would never do that."

But we had it on tape.

♪♪ - We should have more people in this world like Be.

Seriously.

I mean, you think about what went on during her time, and you think about what she added, and the doors that she opened, and saying to Buckhead, "You need to know Southwest Atlanta, Spelman College, and it's an embarrassment that you don't," and the relationships that she developed then.

I mean, I still have relationships with women that I guarantee you I would not have had, but for Be.

- I'm here because of people like Be, who forced those areas in philanthropy to make sure that we had voice, and that women could lead in these areas, so I'm thankful for her and her legacy.

- She cared more about her clients, no matter what size.

She didn't care if it was prestigious or not, if it were the largest museum in town or if it was a grassroots organization that had no money to their name.

She gave them equal presence, equal advice, she treated them just the same, and that's her legacy in my eyes is how generous she was with her time, and it didn't matter who you were.

- Well, I think we were fortunate to know Be.

- Yeah.

- I think we both benefited from that experience.

And the fact that we can remember so many things about her, it kind of illustrates the impact that she had on us.

- And on other people in the community.

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

- There's no close second influence in terms of my career and work.

She is the one who lured me into this with the promise of it being, as I said earlier, a great view of the community, working with people at their best, and she was right.

- And I sent this letter to Be on November 19th, 1993.

Dear Be, it is not often in life that you meet people that impact your life in a profound way.

You are one of the people that has truly touched my life.

You are someone that I look up to and trust completely.

Thank you for all that you've done for Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and in fact, the world as a whole.

Sincerely, Veronica.

- You know, at the time, I was young, and I really didn't think about things like discrimination too much, it was just part of me, but the older I've gotten and I think about her, the more remarkable she seems to me.

- So the week of Be's death, she went to Piedmont Hospital because she had a cold and she wasn't feeling well, and quickly it escalated into pneumonia, and that was the cause of her death.

And it was a Friday evening, the firm here had made her a get well card, and I was asked to deliver it to Piedmont Hospital that evening, and I walked up to the desk at the hospital on her floor to hand her this card that everyone had signed to get well, and the woman cackled at me.

"You mean she's still working?"

(they chuckle) I said, "Yes, this is from her office.

She's still working."

- I think this is probably the most telling.

Literally on her death bed in the hospital, she was complaining to me about a couple of situations with a couple of clients of hers that she cared about deeply, and they were having some strife at the board level.

Those were among her final things on her mind.

I think that just speaks volumes about her.

♪♪ ♪♪