Charles A. Haas

Charles A. Haas is one of the world's foremost Titanic authorities and the current President of the Titanic International Society. Born in Queens, New York, he spent most of his career as a teacher of high school English and journalism in New Jersey, earning a bachelor's degree from Rider University and a master's from William Paterson University. He was named Morris County Teacher of the Year in 1990, and appeared four times in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.

His passion for Titanic was kindled in boyhood by his grandfather — a manager in a New York stevedoring company whose office overlooked New York Harbor — who introduced him to ocean liners and loaned him a copy of Walter Lord's A Night to Remember. That early encounter set him on a path of research that would span decades.

Together with John P. Eaton, Haas co-founded the Titanic International Society in 1989 and co-authored five landmark books on the subject. The pair are the only historians to have participated in three expeditions to the Titanic wreck site, making dives in 1993, 1996, and again in 1998. Haas served as editor of TIS's journal Voyage from the Society's founding until 2006, when he became its President. He has appeared in numerous television documentaries, narrated historical programmes, and continues to speak and write extensively on Titanic.