Morris Karpen Family Collection
M2010.15.01
"Leah and Morris Karpen"
[karpen_013] Morris Karpen Family Collection,
D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville 28804
| Title | Morris Karpen Family Collection |
| Creator | Morris Karpen |
| Alt. Creator | Leah R. Karpen |
| Identifier | http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/karpen_morris/default_karpen_morris.htm |
| Subject Keyword | Morris Karpen ; Asheville, NC ; Leah Karpen ; Morris Karpen Family ; Karpen Hall, UNCA ; Karpen Steel ; Roy Carroll ; Mighty Hawks ; SCORE ; International Executive Service Corps (IESC) ; |
| Subject LCSH | Karpen, Morris Karpen, Leah Asheville (N.C.) -- Buildings, structures, etc. Architecture -- North Carolina -- Asheville Historic buildings -- North Carolina -- Asheville Jews -- North Carolina -- Asheville -- Sources Jews -- Southern States -- History |
| Description | A small collection containing personal papers ; letters of correspondence ; records of philanthropic work with the Asheville community, particularly the sport of soccer ; participation in union activities ; personal family records and other related materials. All images are available in digital form only. |
| Publisher | D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville |
| Contributor | Sharon Fahrer and Jan Schochet, History @ Hand |
| Date original | 2010-11-08 |
| Date digital | 2010-11-08 |
| Type | Collection ; Text ; Image |
| Format | 1 small manuscript box |
| Source | M2010.15.01 |
| Language | English |
| Relation | Leah and Morris Karpen Oral History in Voices of Asheville Oral History Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; E.M. Ball Photographic Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; Ada and Lou Pollock Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; Leo Finklestein Oral History in Voices of Asheville Oral History Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; Beth HaTephila Congregregation (Asheville, NC), D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; Sol Schulman Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; Choosing to Remember - From the Shoah to the Mountains, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNCA ; "Jewish Roots in the Carolinas: A Pattern of American Philo-Semitism,", Charlotte, N.C.: The Charlotte Israelite, 1955, in the D. Hiden Ramsey Collection printed material - various publications (M80.5.2.6) ; Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, UNC Chapel Hill ; American Jewish Historical Society ; "A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life," Documenting the American South, UNC Chapel Hill ; The Family Store Project: A History of Jewish Businesses, 1880-1990, a 12-panel exhibit displayed in a variety of locations in downtown Asheville in the fall of 2006 by History @ Hand. |
| Coverage Temporal | 1880's-present |
| Coverage Spatial | Asheville, NC ; Long Island, NY |
| Rights | Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law. Some materials in collections are electronic rights only. Please ask for assistance from Special Collections staff. |
| Donor | Donor number |
| Acquisition | 2010-11-08 |
| Citation | Morris Karpen Family Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville 28804 |
| Processed by | Special Collections staff, 2010 |
| Last update | 2010-11-08 ; 2012-02-01, HP ; 2012-05-23, JF |
| Biography | Morris Karpen learned his trade from his father who was a machinist who found a very
specialized market in the repair and installation of elevators and doors
when elevators were just beginning to be installed in high-rises across
the nation. A perfectionist, Morris Karpen was trained early and
well and he shared his skills and his work ethic with his children and
with his workers. His generosity is well known and can be found in the
many philanthropic enterprises he engaged while in the western North
Carolina community. Karpen Hall at UNC Asheville was built as a
result of his enthusiasm for the new university and based on his solid
friendship with then Chancellor Roy Carroll. Further, The Mighty Hawks girls soccer team in Asheville could not have gone on to excellence as the undefeated champions of the under 12 girls division in the ABYSA fall 1994 season without the playing fields that Morris built for them on 4 acres of flat land he owned just off Reems Creek Road near his manufacturing plant. An agreement was struck with the Buncombe County Parks and Recreation department that covered the use of the land and the necessary insurance for the the sport fields for the nominal cost of $1 per year in a lease agreement. Morris also worked as a volunteer in the International Executive Service Corps (IESC) and travelled to Bogotá, Colombia, Belize, and China where he consulted on the establishment of various business ventures. Always a teacher, Morris did not take well to retirement and continued his civic work until the end of his life. In fact, when Morris Karpen retired to North Carolina from Long Island, New York, he went back to work. In New York he had headed a business of making custom-doors of steel and those talents were brought out of retirement to create a second business when he established Karpen Steel Products Co. and later Karpen Laser, Inc., in a small plant just north of Weaverville, North Carolina. The machinist business was very familiar to Karpen who was an entrepreneur at heart and had been very successful in his Long Island custom-door business before he turned the business over to his son Seth. In his first year with the Weaverville plant he saw no profits, but soon Karpen was grossing over 2 million dollars a year for his business of making doors to custom specifications in the new western North Carolina location. At the height of the business, it was estimated that Karpen had nearly a fourth of the custom-door business in the U.S. Much of the machinery in the Karpen shop was designed by Karpen himself and his handiness didn't stop there. He was an expert manager who mixed his workforce with young and old and was committed to working with county employment incentive programs like the Buncombe County Employment and Training Office. His strong commitment to passing on his skills is also seen in his work with SCORE, the Senior Corps of Retired Executives. He and 19 other executives went to China where he shared his expertise at establishing small businesses with the Chinese and also learned from the Chinese about their production processes. Karpen Steel Products Co. and later Karpen Laser, Inc., located on Reems Creek Road outside Weaverville, only worked with commercial entities, but the market for custom-doors was a good one and as the business grew, so did the family involvement. Morris' son Joe took over the day-to-day operation of the plant and Joe's sister Rachael worked as the Vice President of marketing, sales and finance. As the company's President, Morris did not languish in his success, but continued to train his workers and to share his profits with them. In 1986, one of his most successful years, Karpen was named the most outstanding senior entrepreneur by the Western North Carolina Entrepreneurial Council and in the same year he received the Outstanding Small Business Leader in Manufacturing award from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. |
| Series |
|
| Items List | ||||
| Box | Folder | Item | Description | Thumbnail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M2010.15.01 | 01 | 01 | Biographical information |  |
| 02 | Letters of Correspondence |  |
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| 03 | Philanthropy | |||
| 04 | Newspaper Clippings |  |
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| 05 | Union Activities Union membership Dues Books: LP 32 (1939) Carpenter's Local Union No. 135 |
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| 06 | Photographs |
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