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Alumnus Donates $2.2 Million To University

NJIT re-designated a major academic building on campus, Oct.22, as Kupfrian Hall to honor a 1933 graduate who donated one of the largest individual gifts in the university's 118-year history. Wilbur J. Kupfrian, '33, a retired patent attorney and entrepreneur, established a $2.2 million trust that will accrue to the university's unrestricted endowment.

A Passaic native who now resides in Stuart, Fla., Kupfrian was honored at ceremonies dedicating Kupfrian Hall, formerly known as University Hall, an academic facility that houses the University Learning Center, theater and classrooms. He says that the gift is his way of saying thanks to the university.

"Newark College of Engineering (NCE) did a nice job for me," said 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 manufacturing entrepreneur to the firm educational foundation 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 NCE.

Fortune brought him to the office of Allan R. Cullimore, president of NCE from 1920-1949, 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, he would be admitted to the college on probation. And with that opportunity, 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 activities in student government, athletics, as editor of the campus publication, The Technician, and as president of the 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.; by 1965 annual sales exceeded $2 million. He served as 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 NJIT President Saul K. Fenster. "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."

Fenster said that the lion's share of the university's endowment income goes to support student scholarships.

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