NEWARK , October 15, 1999 - New Jersey Institute of Technology will redesignate a major academic building on its Newark Campus on Friday, October 22 as Kupfrian Hall to honor a 1933 graduate who has donated one of the largest individual gifts in the university's 118-year history. Wilbur J. Kupfrian, a retired patent attorney and entrepreneur, has established a $2.2 million trust that will accrue to the university's unrestricted endowment.

     A Passaic, NJ native who now resides in Stuart, Florida, Kupfrian will be honored at ceremonies dedicating Kupfrian Hall, formerly known as University Hall, an academic facility that houses the University Learning Center, NJIT's Theater and classrooms. He says that the gift is his way of saying thanks to the university.

     "Newark College of Engineering did a nice job for me," says Kupfrian. "I'm very proud of the growth that has taken place at NJIT. Back in '33, it was a very different place, with only three buildings. Saul Fenster and his team have done an impressive job of expanding and developing the institution's potential as an important research university. We want to encourage and support that growth."

     Kupfrian credits his subsequent success as a patent attorney and as a manufacturing entrepreneur to the firm educational foundation that he received at the university. As a young man, he was forced to drop out of high school in his sophomore year to help support his family. He earned some credits toward an equivalency diploma while working as a draftsman, but realizing that the key to a better future was a college education, he decided to apply for admission to Newark College of Engineering.

     Fortune brought him to the office of Allan R. Cullimore, president of NCE from 1920 to 1949, whose goal was to make NCE a "school of opportunity" and whose talent was to recognize young people with potential. Cullimore offered the young man a trial -- a year in the "Newark Tech" night program -- and if he succeeded there, admission to the college on probation. And with that opportunity, Wil Kupfrian's future was transformed.

     The probation was lifted by midterm in his freshman year, and scholarship, loans and a student work program were made available. Kupfrian was soon at the top of his class academically and leading a broad range of student activities in student government and athletics, as editor of the campus publication, The Technician, and as president of student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He went on to earn a law degree at Fordham University and went into practice as a patent attorney.

     In 1950, he founded the first of several successful manufacturing businesses, Kupfrian Manufacturing, which began in an old barn with eight employees, and eventually became a division of Robinson Technical Products, Inc. with annual sales exceeding $2 million by 1965. He served as a vice president of Robinson Technical until 1973, and as a director of Robintech, Inc., until his retirement in 1977.

     "Wil is the perfect NJIT success story," said Saul K Fenster, president of NJIT. "Our tradition, and our continuing mission is to be an opportunity university, a place where talented people, many of limited means, can transform their lives. We are grateful to Wil and his wife, Laura, for their exceptional generosity that will assist NJIT in continuing in that role." The university president said that the lion's share of the university's endowment income goes to support student scholarships.

     Kupfrian's visit today will not be his first return to campus; he has been an active alumnus since graduation. On the night of his graduation, in fact, he organized his class' first reunion, signing up classmates for a one-year reunion celebration as they waited in their caps and gowns for the processional to begin. With Kupfrian coordinating, the "33rd Engineers" as the class became known, convened on an almost annual basis for more than two decades. After their 25th anniversary, with successful class members now spread across the country, the group decided to target reunions for intervals of five years or more. Kupfrian was one of those who helped to organize the class' 60th anniversary in 1993, but with classmates now in their 80s, the turnout was small. So in 1996, Kupfrian once again took the lead, organizing a class "round robin" to gather and share class updates by mail annually

      "Our class has strong bonds because we went through hard times together," Kupfrian said. "We went through college during the worst four years of the Depression. There was but little money for any extracurricular activities, so we adopted a "quarter a week" dues plan. Many of my classmates couldn't even afford that. We couldn't even afford a regular yearbook, although we scraped together enough for a scaled-down version. Hardship made us appreciate each other and NCE more, and we've stayed closer to classmates and to the university."

     The Kupfrians have been generous donors to the university for many years. Among their previous gifts is a large gift annuity supporting a scholarship for undergraduate computer science majors at NJIT. The scholarship honors the memory of their son, Theodore, a gifted computer scientist who contributed to the LRV, the moon buggy, who succumbed to cancer in 1995.