Miroslav Havel, 86; Helped Save Waterford

Miroslav Havel, 86, a Czech-born designer and engraver who created many of Waterford Crystal's most enduring pieces and who had helped reactivate the venerable but defunct luxury brand in the late 1940s, died of a heart ailment Sept. 5 at his home in Waterford City, Ireland.

The original Waterford factory, which was founded in Ireland in the late 1700s and became world-renowned for producing fine crystal, shuttered in the 1850s. Mr. Havel was one of two Czech immigrants responsible for reviving the company as well as the crystal glass industry after World War II.

Mr. Havel was the founding chief designer for Waterford Crystal and maintained that role for more than four decades, in addition to guiding important reorganizations centered on quality control. He also was a glass cutter, blower, sculptor and polisher. Among the designs he fashioned was Lismore, the world's best-selling crystal glass pattern.

Chandeliers designed and cut by Mr. Havel hang in Westminster Abbey in London and at the Kennedy Center. The latter was commissioned by former first lady Jacqueline Onassis, who had toured the Waterford factory in 1967. A scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, which Mr. Havel carved from a solid block of crystal, was presented to Ronald Reagan at the White House on St. Patrick's Day in 1986.

As the company's principal designer, Mr. Havel spent many hours in the mid-1950s at the National Museum of Ireland studying and drawing surviving pieces of Waterford glass from the 18th and 19th centuries.

He used those historic designs as inspiration for creating the modern Waterford patterns, which are some of the most popular, including Lismore, Colleen and Kildare. According to Mr. Havel's son Brian, Lismore is responsible for more than 50 percent of Waterford's crystal sales in the United States.

Mr. Havel was born May 26, 1922, in Drzkov, Czechoslovakia, about 100 miles north of Prague. He was the only son of a costume jewelry manufacturer and a teacher.

He studied at the prestigious Academy of Industrial Art and Design in Prague, where he mastered all aspects of traditional Bohemian glass cutting. He also interned at a glass factory in Bohemia owned by Karel Bacik, who later invited him to Ireland with the aim of rebuilding the country's crystal industry.

Mr. Havel accepted, in part based on an ill-informed Czechoslovakian encyclopedia that described Ireland as an exotic locale with a climate not unlike Jamaica. His friend also promised a thriving glass factory when he arrived.

Instead, Mr. Havel found Bacik sitting in a small hut in the middle of an empty field, imagining a glass factory, according to Brian Havel. Mr. Havel became the first employee.

In "Maestro of Crystal," a biography Brian Havel wrote about his father, he said the elder Havel never intended to stay in Ireland for more than a few months. But the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia prevented him from returning home for 25 years. He was forced to leave behind his parents as well as a fiancée with whom he eventually drifted apart. He remained in Ireland for 61 years, becoming an Irish citizen in 1959.

Survivors include his wife of 51 years, the former Betty Storey, a local girl from Waterford he met at the factory; six children, John Havel of Dublin, Mirek Havel of Baltimore, Elizabeth Barry of Waterford, Clodagh Barrett of Dublin and Brian Havel and Julie Havel, both of Chicago; and 11 grandchildren.

To his Waterford colleagues, Mr. Havel was known as "Paddy," after a local bishop persuaded him to take Patrick as his confirmation name. The bishop had been unable to pronounce the name of the Czech saint Mr. Havel had originally chosen.