[4][5] In 1935 he immigrated to the United States, settling in Worcester, Massachusetts, where two of his brothers, Alexander and Sidney, lived.
[3][5] After arriving in the United States, Hiatt worked at his brother Alexander's shoe manufacturing company, where he made boxes.
Dodge Paper Box Corp. in Leominster, Massachusetts, where he eventually rose to the position of company president.
[8] Hiatt remained in charge of Rand-Whitney until 1968, when his son-in-law, Robert Kraft, purchased half of the company in a leveraged buyout.
After he returned home, Hiatt became a supporter of the establishment of the state of Israel as well as the cause of Holocaust victims.
[3][4] In 1960, Hiatt was appointed to the Board of Directors of the North American Division of the World Jewish Congress.
[11] After the death of his wife in 1980, Hiatt purchased a square block of land in Jerusalem for the creation of a park in her memory.
[6] In 1989, he also gave a large endowment to name the university's Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology.
[5] In 1990, Hiatt, his daughter Myra, and his son-in-law Robert Kraft financed an endowed chair in Judaic studies at Holy Cross, along with an endowed chair in Christian studies at Brandeis as part of a program that involved joint academic activities in comparative religion.
[19] He also provided funding for a wing of the Holy Cross library, named after his parents, that is devoted to Holocaust studies.