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OCTOBER 2, 2017 • HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL | 65 People In Memoriam Worth Loomis Loomis was past president of the Dexter Corp., which at one time was the oldest listed company on the New York Stock Exchange before its eventual purchase by Ahlstrom. He served in that role from 1975 to 1988 before eventually retiring as vice-chairman of the specialty paper manufacturer, based in Windsor Locks. He died this past July at 94. After retirement from Dexter, he was president of the former Hartford Graduate Center, now known as Rensselaer at Hartford, until 1994, when he joined the faculty of the Hartford Seminary. He was named its dean in March 1999. Loomis was 75 when appointed to the position. He also has had a long history of supporting a variety of philanthropic organizations including the American Red Cross, the Hartford Public Library and Riverfront Recapture Inc. He was also a trustee of Trinity College. He also helped start Leadership Greater Hartford. Eileen Kraus Kraus culminated her years in Connecticut banking circles by becoming the first female regional CEO of former Fleet Bank-Connecticut, predecessor to Bank of America's Connecticut branch network. She died this year at 78 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Kraus, an inductee in the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame, formed her own human resources company in 1975. According to her Hall of Fame bio, in 1979, Kraus was recruited to be vice president of human resources planning and development at Hartford National Bank. After numerous promotions, in 1990 she was promoted to vice chairman of Shawmut National Corp. with responsibility for consumer banking and marketing. Her 1992 appointment as president of Connecticut National Bank, Connecticut's largest bank and a subsidiary of Shawmut National Corp. (where she remained vice chairman), was widely hailed as a milestone in the history of America's women in financial services. Kraus was active in civic affairs. She served as chair of the Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce, trustee of both Trinity College and of Kingswood- Oxford School, and as chair of the Community Economic Development Foundation. David T. Chase In spite of global success as a business leader and philanthropist, Chase never lost sight of his Hartford roots. He died in June 2016 at the age of 88. Chase's career spanned many different industries, including commercial real estate, banking, telecommunications, construction, manufacturing and hotels. He played a leading role in developing the Hartford skyline and reinvigorating downtown Hartford in the 1970s and 1980s with the construction of the Gold Building, One Corporate Center (known as the Stilts Building) and 280 Trumbull St. His reach extended beyond Connecticut. Chase was one of the first Americans to invest in Poland after the fall of the Berlin Wall, owing much to his friendship with Pope John Paul II, who asked that Chase return to Poland to transition it from communism to capitalism. Business Leaders Who Left a Legacy By Keith Griffin Special to the Hartford Business Journal Over the course of 25 years, death has claimed some of Hartford's best and brightest. Here are some of the business and community figures whose legacies have influenced the way we see Greater Hartford today. Photo | Sam Rodriguez, All American Aerial LLC