A longtime resident of Riverton, Mr. Haas graduated from Palmyra High School in 1941. Two days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army, joining the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He fought in North Africa, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, and was wounded twice, once in the foot and once when shrapnel hit him in the chest.

At the concentration camp, near Ludwigslust, Mr. Haas was so outraged at the inhumanity that he ripped a swastika off the chest of one of the guards and never spoke of it for 30 years, his daughter Valerie Wood said.

"He said it was one of the saddest moments of his life, and he could hardly bear it," she recounted. The camp, which at its peak held 5,000 prisoners, many of whom starved to death, was liberated May 2, 1945. When the soldiers arrived, they found 1,000 bodies.

Mr. Haas was awarded various medals and citations, including the Bronze Star. In one of his dangerous missions, he and other soldiers rowed across the River Waal in a small wooden boat and disembarked on the bridge at Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The combat at the bridge was memorialized in the movie A Bridge Too Far. "It was sheer bravery," said Andrea Hubbell, another daughter, explaining how the soldiers were fired upon from the shore.

While stationed in Leicester, England, Mr. Haas met his future wife of 55 years, Mary Vera Bancroft, at an armory dance. They raised three daughters and one son in Riverton, where Mr. Haas remained until his wife's death in 2000.

Mr. Haas then moved to Connecticut to be near closer to Hubbell.

Mr. Haas attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania on the GI Bill and earned a degree in accounting and finance in 1955. He was hired as personnel manager for Olivetti Underwood, which made typewriters, and worked there until the early 1970s. Then he became the personnel manager at the Regal Corrugated Box Co. in Philadelphia until his retirement in 1985.

He also was a past president of the Rotary Club of Burlington County and an avid New York Yankees fan who was seldom seen without his baseball cap.

Mr. Haas also loved politics and travel.

Besides Wood and Hubbell, he is survived by his son, Bill; daughter Mervil Dorr; two sisters; and seven grandchildren.

Services are private.

Memorial donations may be made to Disabled American Veterans, Box 14301, Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-0301.

at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com.