Rudolf Frederick Haffenreffer, Jr. was educated in the Boston school system, but seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of his father, a brewer.  At the age of 14, he was sent to Stuttguart, Germany where he studied chemistry.  Upon his return to the United States, Rudolf attended the "United States Brewers Academy" in New York and studied Chemistry and the science of fermantation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1895, he established the "Old Colony Brewery" in Fall River.  He acquired several other brewerys over the years "to his brewing empire."  In 1902, he married Maude Munro.  The year following his marriage, he purchased the 69 acre "Mount Hope Amusement Park" in Bristol on the shores of Mount Hope Bay.

In 1912, Mr. Haffenreffer expanded his Bristol estate with the acquisition of the abutting 500 acre Mount Hope Farm.  "Walks arond his new Summer residence, which was being manage for his as a working farm, recealed a variety of local native American artifacts which began a life-long hobby of collecting.  Becoming President of the Utah Apen Mining Company in 1917, frequest business trips to the southwestern part of the United States let to the expansion of collecting all aspects of Native American artifacts and folk art and an intense interest in acrheology and anthropology.

In 1931, Mr. Haffenreffer was granted receivership of the failed Mount Hope Bridge Corporation.  The new bridge was open just days before the the stock market crash of 1929.

Rudolf was involbed with the Boy Scouts of America as early as 1910, and over the years invited the Rhode Island Boy Scouts to have encampments on his Mount Hope Farm estate.