Columbia University. Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_University_-_Low_Memorial_Library_(48170370506).jpg)
Gallery of Stephen Raffay
Harvard University. Photo: chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sanders_theater_2009y.JPG)
Columbia University. Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_University_-_Low_Memorial_Library_(48170370506).jpg)
Stephen Joseph Raffay was an American manufacturing executive and corporate director. He spent more than three decades with Emhart Corporation, where he held senior financial, administrative, and international operating positions, then joined Dexter Corporation and served on the boards of several Connecticut companies.
Background
Stephen Joseph Raffay was born on October 25, 1927, in McAdoo, Pennsylvania, to Stephen John Raffay and Stephanie Severa Raffay. McAdoo developed as a coal-mining community in northeastern Pennsylvania, a region shaped by immigrant settlement and the anthracite industry during the early twentieth century.
Raffay later established his professional and family life in the New York and Connecticut region. He married Audree Eugenia Kuehne on September 12, 1953, and they had three children: Andrea, Stephen, and Leslie.
Education
Raffay earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1950 and a Master of Science degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1951. Columbia, founded in New York in 1754 as King's College, was one of the major American universities whose urban setting connected liberal education with commerce, professional training, and international affairs.
In 1975, Raffay attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. Harvard, founded in 1636, had developed one of the United States' leading traditions of advanced professional and executive education, particularly through programs designed for experienced managers and corporate leaders. Raffay also became a Certified Public Accountant in New York State in 1956.
Raffay began his professional career with Arthur Andersen & Company in New York City, working as a senior accountant from 1951 to 1956. Arthur Andersen was then one of the major American accounting firms, providing audit and related financial services to large corporations during the postwar expansion of business administration and public-company reporting.
In 1956, Raffay joined Emhart Corporation in Farmington, Connecticut, initially as assistant controller. Emhart was a diversified manufacturing company whose businesses included glass-making and packaging machinery, hardware, electronics, chemical products, and other industrial goods. Its Connecticut corporate structure expanded through mergers and international subsidiaries, making financial control and overseas administration central concerns of senior management. Raffay became assistant treasurer in 1961, treasurer in 1963, vice president for international operations in 1967, vice president and group president in 1972, and executive vice president in 1979.
From 1984 to 1987, Raffay served as Emhart's vice chairman, chief administrative officer, and a director. He supervised international manufacturing and corporate operations involving nearly 150 domestic and overseas companies, with business relationships extending across the Pacific Basin, Europe, South Africa, and Russia. His work coincided with Emhart's development as a multinational industrial enterprise; in 1989, after Raffay's departure, the company merged with Black & Decker.
Raffay became senior vice president for corporate development of Dexter Corporation in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, in 1987 and held that position until 1990. Dexter had roots in an eighteenth-century Connecticut sawmill and paper-making enterprise and had grown into a diversified manufacturer with operations in materials, aerospace, electronics, food packaging, and medical products. After retiring from Dexter, Raffay served as a director of companies including Reflexite Corporation, Fresnel Optics, Inc., Coating Sciences, Scharr Industries, United Plumbing Technologies, Superior Electric Company, Life Technologies, EDAK Technologies Corporation, Rossi Corporation, and Keeney Manufacturing Company. He was also a director of the Bank of New England and helped found the Trust Company of Connecticut.
Achievements
Raffay directed financial, administrative, and international manufacturing operations for Emhart Corporation during the company's expansion as a multinational industrial enterprise. His responsibilities included oversight of operations involving nearly 150 domestic and overseas companies across North America, Europe, the Pacific Basin, South Africa, and Russia.
After his executive career, Raffay contributed to Connecticut's corporate and civic institutions through service on the boards of manufacturing, technology, finance, and cultural organizations, including the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Hartford Chamber of Commerce.
Religion
Raffay was an Episcopalian and a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in West Hartford. The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican tradition, whose American development combined inherited forms of liturgy and church governance with the religious pluralism of the United States.
Episcopal congregations commonly emphasize public worship, sacramental life, biblical interpretation, and service to the wider community. Raffay's documented connection with St. John's places his religious affiliation within the civic and institutional life of Hartford County.
Membership
Raffay belonged to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants, professional organizations serving accounting practice, standards, education, and public responsibility.
His civic memberships and board service connected corporate leadership with cultural and regional institutions. He served for approximately forty years as a director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, was president of the Hartford Arts Council, and served as a director of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in West Hartford.
Member
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
,
United States
Member
Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants
,
United States
Director for approximately forty years
Hartford Symphony Orchestra
,
United States
President
Hartford Arts Council
,
United States
Director
Hartford Chamber of Commerce
,
United States
Member in West Hartford
St. John's Episcopal Church
,
United States
Connections
Raffay married Audree Eugenia Kuehne on September 12, 1953. They had three children: Andrea, Stephen, and Leslie. His parents were Stephen John Raffay and Stephanie Severa Raffay.
Father:
Stephen John Raffay
Mother:
Stephanie Severa Raffay
Son:
Leslie Raffay
Son:
Stephen Raffay
Daughter:
Andrea Raffay
Wife:
Audree Eugenia Kuehne
Married Stephen Joseph Raffay on September 12, 1953.
Emhart Corporation Records
Provides historical context for Emhart Corporation as a Farmington-based multinational manufacturer and describes its industrial development and international operations.
