Commerce
From 1867 to 1877 he lived and worked in New York. In 1877, his brothers retired, so he returned to Belfast to head the family business, “The Jaffe Brothers” at Bedford Street. He built it up to become the largest linen exporter in Ireland.
He was a member of the Belfast Harbour Commission. In 1894, he successfully agitated for the reporting and destruction of derelicts in the North Atlantic Ocean.
He was a Justice of the Peace, a governor of the Royal Hospital, a member of the Irish Technical Education Board and a member of the Senate of Queen's College, which later became Queen's University of Belfast. He was the German consul in Belfast. He was an active member of the committee which got the Public Libraries Act extended to Belfast, leading to the first free library being established there.
In 1910 he erected the Jaffe Spinning Mill on the Newtownards Road, also known as Strand Spinning. This provided work for 350 people, rising to 650 in 1914 when the company expanded to make munitions. He was lavishly charitable and contributed to Queen's College.
Read more about this topic: Otto Jaffe
Famous quotes containing the word commerce:
“I leave you, home,
when I’m ripped from the doorstep
by commerce or fate. Then I submit
to the awful subway of the world....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Here, the churches seemed to shrink away into eroding corners. They seem to have ceased to be essential parts of American life. They no longer give life. It is the huge buildings of commerce and trade which now align the people to attention. These in their massive manner of steel and stone say, Come unto me all ye who labour, and we will give you work.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)