Queens College
Max Kupferberg ’42 received
the Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters
A native of Queens, Max Kupferberg has been exceptionally active in the
religious, service, educational, and financial life of the borough. He is a
spirited and generous alumnus of Queens College, providing annual scholarships
to the physics department and long-time support to the performing art.
After completing his BS in physics at Queens College in 1942, Kupferberg
attended New York University until World War II interrupted his graduate
studies. He and two brothers became part of the Manhattan Project, conducting
nuclear research at Los Alamos, New Mexico. After the war, the four Kupferberg
brothers (Max, Ken, Jesse, and Jack) founded KEPCO, Inc., specializing in electrical
equipment. The Flushing firm has grown into a successful and respected
international business that is involved in research and development, manufacturing,
and sales. Today KEPCO, with Max Kupferberg as chairman of the board, remains
in Flushing and is still owned and operated by the Kupferberg family.
In February 2006, together with his wife,
Selma, Max presented his alma mater with a $10 million gift, the largest single
gift ever received by Queens College. In recognition of their generosity, the
college renamed its Colden Center for the Performing Arts the Selma and Max
Kupferberg Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. The money is used to fund
an endowment that provides annual programming support for the arts at Queens
College, as well as to provide much-needed support for renovations to the
facility.
Susan Isaacs ’65:
Commencement Speaker
Susan Isaacs is an award-winning
novelist, essayist, screenwriter, political columnist and book reviewer whose
fiction has been translated into 30 languages. All 10 of Isaacs’ novels have
been New York Times bestsellers and main selections of the Literary Guild. Three of them, Compromising
Positions, Hello
Again and Shining
Through, were turned into major
feature films. Isaacs just published her 11th novel, Past Perfect.#
