HADDAD FAMILY MEMBERS TO GATHER IN CHARLESTON

  Published: 06/27/2003
  Page: 1A
  Byline: CHRIS STIREWALT DAILY MAIL STAFF

"One of the main things we're trying to figure out is why they came to West Virginia in the first place," Norm Haddad, the event's organizer, said. "We have some theories - maybe that they had heard there was an appealing retail climate with the boom in the coal industry - but we still don't have any firm answers."

The Haddad name is one of the best known in Charleston, especially in the world of retail. Fred Haddad, who died in January after 50 years as one of the dominant economic forces in the city, launched the Heck's department store chain here. But he was building on the successes of the generations before him.

Norm Haddad said the Haddads of West Virginia are descended from seven brothers and sisters, most of whom immigrated to the United States from Lebanon between 1910 and 1920.

They were the children of Suleman Haddad, who never left his homeland. But his offspring departed what was then part of the Ottoman Empire for greater opportunities in the burgeoning economy of America.

One of those who left the hills of Lebanon for the mountains of West Virginia was Norm Haddad's grandfather, Radwan. All four of his children eventually made it to West Virginia, but Radwan Haddad died in Lebanon on a return trip to arrange passage for his youngest son.

"This was the land of opportunity for them," Norm Haddad said. "There was a chance to do something with your life over here."

But to get started, the young Haddads needed to get into retail in a way that didn't require huge capital expenditures. Peddling out of a suitcase or a pack was the logical answer in those days.

Norm Haddad's father, George, who found himself as a teenager in a new land without his parents, took to peddling along the Kanawha River in the coal camps and other settlements that had sprung up around the turn of the century.

One of the stories that George Haddad told his son was of a cousin who was peddling in central West Virginia. The young man came upon an area full of people with an open field in the middle.

"He walked out into this big field and suddenly found himself in the middle of a football game. He had no idea what was going on," said Norm Haddad, who came up from St. Petersburg, Fla., for the reunion. "Those are the kind of stories that we're hoping to hear more of at this reunion."

Over time family members built on their early successes and started stores, mostly in Kanawha and Boone counties. As those stores prospered, the growing family reinvested and built bigger stores to capitalize on the changing face of retail.

And while there might not be many Haddads in the retail business anymore, the money that was earned in those days paid for education that has made for dozens of professionals around the country all proudly claiming their Haddad heritage.

Haddad means blacksmith in Lebanese, and is nearly as common as the last name Smith is in English. Norm Haddad said that's why there are so many pockets of Haddads around the United States, especially in Massachusetts, Iowa and West Virginia.

Southern West Virginia became home to many Lebanese families, who were drawn by the success and connections to groups like the Haddads.

Norm Haddad said that while the family gained much from its American immigration nearly a century ago, their homeland gained much, too. This explains the appearance of Eastern Orthodox churches in the midst of what looks sure to be Baptist country.

"Our faith, our food and our sense of family are evident right here in Charleston," he said. "It was our gift to the area in exchange for everything we received."

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