NJIT Mourns the Passing of Wilbur J. Kupfrian '33, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist and 'Quintessential Alumnus'

Wilbur J. Kupfrian, patent attorney and entrepreneur, as well as one of NJIT's most enthusiastic and generous supporters, died December 6, 2006 at the age of 97.

A member of the legendary "33rd Engineers" class at Newark College of Engineering, Kupfrian overcame a humble background and the Great Depression to achieve successful careers as a patent attorney and a manufacturing entrepreneur. He and his wife, Laura, who passed away in May 2006, were among the largest private donors in the university's history. Their major gifts to the university included a $2.2 million trust to the university's unrestricted endowment in 1999. They also supported a scholarship for undergraduate computer science majors in memory of their son Theodore, a gifted computer scientist involved in the development of the LRV moon buggy, who succumbed to cancer in 1995. NJIT's Kupfrian Hall, which houses the university's Jim Wise Theater and the University Learning Center, is named in honor of the couple.
Wilbur J. Kupfrian with his wife, Laura

Charles R. Dees Jr., PhD, vice president for University Advancement and president and COO of the Foundation of NJIT, described Kupfrian as "the quintessential NJIT alumnus," a role model for students and alumni alike.

"Wil was the perfect NJIT success story, a demonstration of our role as a university of opportunity where talented people of limited means can transform their lives," Dr. Dees said. "At the same time, he had an incredible dedication to his alma mater, maintaining ties among his classmates and with the university over more than 75 years. Mainly through his efforts, the class of 1933 was one of the closest-knit groups in the university's history and the most generous. Wil's remarkable spirit and energy inspired everyone who knew him."

Wil Kupfrian's extraordinary relationship with NJIT begin in 1929 when he traveled from his home in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, to the campus of Newark College of Engineering in pursuit of a dream - a good education which he saw as the key to his future success. He was not at all sure that the college would take him - he had little to bargain with, either financially or academically. Forced to quit high school in his sophomore year, he had been working since he was 14 in a New York patent law firm as a draftsman and a telephone operator. He had earned some credits toward an equivalency diploma, but he had no idea if it would be enough to get him into NCE.

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. The probation was lifted by midterm in his freshman year, and scholarship, loans and a student work program were made available. He received the BS in mechanical engineering in 1933 and a Degree of Engineer in 1935.

A clerkship in a law firm as part of his undergraduate co-op experience led Kupfrian to Fordham Law School where he earned a JD in 1940. He practiced patent law for several years at Union Carbide and Sperry Gyroscope. In 1944, he joined Elliott Manufacturing Co., a Binghamton, New York family company that made flexible shafting. 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. During the last thirty years he described himself as a security trader. After retiring to Florida in 1978, he was active in the North River Shore Property Owners Association [Stuart, Florida], serving as president and chairman of its Legal Committee.

Kupfrian's versatility and leadership skills emerged during his student years at NCE. To offset expenses, he worked on campus as a night watchman, a janitor and campus photographer, but still managed to excel academically. He also found time to lead 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.

"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."

Wil and his classmates earned the praise of President Cullimore for their success in overcoming the many hardships and sacrifices necessitated by the desperate economic climate of the Great Depression. At their graduation, he congratulated the 33rd Engineers for their "spirit and their good judgment in scaling back, but not abandoning, their extracurricular activities" - managing projects with very limited resources, and yet never losing the sense of community and camaraderie that such activities engender.

Kupfrian began his role as an active alumnus even before he left NCE. On the night of his graduation, 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 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. In 2003, he was the impetus for a 70th "virtual reunion" in which the surviving 33rd Engineers shared reminiscences and greetings on tape, on the Web and in a special reunion yearbook.

Wil and Laura Kupfrian last visited the NJIT campus in 1999 when the university dedicated Kupfrian Hall in their honor in gratitude for their generous support. Wil said that the gifts were his way of saying thanks to the university.

"Newark College of Engineering did a nice job for me," he told the university community. "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. You have done an impressive job of expanding and developing the institution's potential as an important research university. We wanted to encourage and support that growth."