GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A businessman and philanthropist whose generous imprint is felt across West Michigan, Ralph Hauenstein kept quiet for decades about

his greater contribution to the nation

.

Hauenstein played a considerable part in winning World War II through his role in the "Ultra" secret, a covert program that broke the German code and afforded a key strategic advantage to the Allied war effort. Ralph Hauenstein died Sunday, Jan. 10, at age 103.

Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower called Ultra "decisive" in the victory over Nazi Germany.

In addition to his service as U.S. Army colonel and chief of intelligence for the European Theater of Operations, Hauenstein gave freely to local medical and educational programs.

He was once hailed as "a true American hero" by one of his life-long friends, the late President Gerald Ford. The former Grand Rapids congressman Vernon Ehlers called him "a giant among giants."

Even Bono, lead singer for the rock group U2, after meeting Hauenstein during a Grand Rapids appearance in 2006, called him "a cool cat. ... Who's the rock star here tonight?" Bono asked.

All those tributes were embarrassing to Hauenstein. He gave countless millions of dollars to charity, including for the Hauenstein Center at Mercy Health Saint Mary's hospital, the Grace Hauenstein Library at Aquinas College and the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University, yet he seldom sought credit.

"I really didn't give a damn about the name," he said in a 2008 interview. But giving his money and name to a project was a way of prompting others to support it. After Hauenstein became the lead donor for Saint Mary's Hauenstein Center, "the money literally poured in," Micki Benz, the hospital's vice president, said. "They (other donors) revered him so much, it was like an honor to give in Ralph's name."

In 2001, Hauenstein donated $1 million to Grand Valley State University to establish the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

In 2008, the $60 million Hauenstein Center opened, focused on neuroscience treatment with clinics for Parkinson's disease, stroke, brain tumors, epilepsy and spine an neuro-trauma management. Hauenstein's father died of Parkinson's. Hauenstein and his wife, Grace, furnished the lead gift.

Hauenstein was inspired to give to the center by his father's battle with Parkinson's disease, which robs a person of speech and movement as it progresses.

"He had been so active. And it broke his heart because he couldn't do anything, " he said.

In 2006, Hauenstein was asked by the family of President Ford to be part of an honor guard for the funeral procession for the former president in Washington, D.C.

"It's a great honor, " he said at the time, even though his friendship with Ford began as a rivalry on a football field in Grand Rapids around 1930.

Hauenstein played for Central High School and Ford was captain of the South High School team. That rivalry later gave way to an alliance, when Hauenstein in 1948 joined a group of veterans who helped Ford win his first election to Congress.

Born in Indiana, Hauenstein moved to Grand Rapids at the age of 12. He served two-and-a-half years in the U.S. Army in the 1930s before returning to civilian life and a stint as city editor of the now-defunct Grand Rapids Herald, working his way up from copy boy.

With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Hauenstein rejoined the Army. He served a couple of years in Iceland before transferring to London in 1943, where he became chief of the intelligence branch for the European Theater of Operations.

On his arrival in London, Hauenstein was briefed about Ultra by Col. Telford Taylor, who became chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials following the war and later a respected lawyer and law professor at Columbia University.

The key to Ultra was a small coding device called an enigma machine, which the German military routinely used during the war to encode messages before transmitting them. The machine included a keyboard similar to a typewriter.

It had three rotors and a series of plugs that encoded messages typed into it. A German officer on the receiving end would use the same settings on his enigma machine to decode the message.

What the Germans did not know is the British had obtained an enigma machine in 1939. That helped the Allies design a computer that could imitate the enigma machine and decode intercepted messages.

"It took geniuses to really break that enigma code, the Germans had so many settings, " said historian Stephen Ambrose. "It won the war sooner. It saved countless lives."

At an estate called Bletchley Park outside London, teams of code experts deciphered the intercepted messages. Once a day, the messages arrived at Hauenstein's London office along with an officer to brief him.

Hauenstein combined the Ultra intelligence with information from informants, prisoners of war and other sources to form a clear picture of what the enemy was planning, then passed that information on to the proper officers.

He was a crucial figure in convincing Hitler and his generals the 1944 D-Day invasion of France would be at Calais, not Normandy. A fictitious army, the First Army Group, was created, complete with plywood airplanes, rubber ships and inflatable tanks.

If the invasion were to succeed, he knew Hitler must keep his 15th Army at Calais. As the invasion began, he was in the war room in London, confident Hitler had bought the ruse.

"We sucked him in good on that one," Hauenstein recalled. "If he had let that army free, he'd have wiped us all out. That would have changed the war. I didn't think we would fail. We weren't going to fail."

Details about the Ultra project were kept secret until 1974. "We were told, 'Never talk about it,'" he said.

Based in London for much of the war, Hauenstein worked under Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and was among the first Americans back in Paris, where he ordered the brothels closed, because he suspected prostitutes were passing information to the Germans.

At the liberation of the Dachau death camp, he saw "atrocities that I will never get out of my mind," he once said. For the rest of his life, his right hand bore a scar caused by a Jewish woman who squeezed it in gratitude for her American liberators. Across a desk, he faced the death camp's commandant flanked by lamps with shades made of human skin.

"He looked like the devil to me," he recalled in 2008. Hauenstein reached for his sidearm, but another American officer restrained him. "I came so close," he said. "You have no idea."

As the war in Europe ended, he interrogated Germany's top commander, Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt, and asked if he knew where Hitler was. "No," he recalled von Rundstedt answered, "but I imagine he's up in the mountains herding sheep, where be belongs."

After the war, Hauenstein helped create the Central Intelligence Agency and recruited some of its original officers, including a Russian count who served as Paris station chief.

Much of what he knew during World War II remained classified for decades, and only in recent years did Hauenstein talk about his experiences, first in stories published in The Press and later in a 2005 memoir, "Intelligence was My Line," co-authored by Donald Markle.

After the war, he went into business and owned several companies in Grand Rapids, including Werner Lehara Inc., which made equipment for the food industry, and which he sold in 1980 to APV Baker Inc.

Decades later, he turned his focus to the leadership qualities of the presidency as he helped found the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

"Nothing but good can come from a great study, and we could do it right here in Grand Rapids," he said.

The center serves university students through mentorships and engagements with professionals. It also host dozens of discussions, debates and conferences to inform citizens about the challenges presidents and other leaders face.

Likewise, the impact of the Hauenstein Center and its affiliation with Mercy Health Saint Mary's transcends its role in advancing neuroscience in West Michigan.

Building of the four-story structure created an estimated 300 construction jobs, plus another 294 permanent jobs with total annual wages of $22.1 million.

"What the analysis suggests is new medical services have a large economic impact," said George Erickcek, an economist with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo.

Hauenstein's impact was felt in many corners of the world.

He was a special consultant to President Eisenhower's Advisory Commission, an auditor at the Second Vatican Council and a monitor during Russia's first free elections. Those he met during his years of public service included Winston Churchill, Charles deGaulle, Vyacheslav Molotov, Haile Selassie, Richard Nixon and Mikhail Gorbachev.

He received the Order of the British Empire, the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War), and was knighted by Pope John XXIII.

His wife of 75 years, Grace, died of Alzheimer's in 2007. His daughter, Mary Stahl, of Gun Lake, died in 2009 of lung cancer. He is survived by two sons Ralph David and Tom.

During a 2004 speech, Hauenstein summed up his life's philosophy: "Those who are dedicated, who are courageous, who are visionary; those who hold fast to their ideals; those who don't lose faith -- these are the Americans who make a difference, who live good lives of leadership and service."

-- Written by Ted Roelofs and Pat Shellenbarger.