Kapany was born on October 31 1926 in a Sikh family in Moga, Punjab. He completed his schooling in Dehradun and did graduation from Agra University. He served briefly as an Ordinance Factories Service officer, before going to Imperial College, London in 1952 to work on a PH.D degree in optics from the University of London which he obtained in 1955.
As an entrepreneur and business executive, Kampany specialized in the processes of innovation and the management of technology transfer. In 1960 he founded Optics Technology Inc and was Chairman of the Board, President and Director of Research for 12 years. In 1967 the company went public with numerous corporate acquisitions and joint ventures in the United States and abroad. In 1973 Kapany KaptronInc and was President and CEO until 1990 when he sold the company to AMP incorporated. For the next nine years, Kapany was an AMP Fellow, heading the Entrepreneur and Technical Expert Program and serving as Chief Technologist for Global Communications Business. He founded K2 Optronics. He also served on the Board of various companies. He was a member of the Presidents Organization.
As a philanthropist, Kapany was active in education and arts. He was the founding chairman of the Sikh Foundation and a major funder of its activities for over 50 years. In collaboration with international institutions and publishers, the Foundation runs programs of publishing, academia and the arts. In 1998, Kapany endowed a chair of Sikhs studies at the University of California. His gift in 1999 of $500,000 to the Asian Arts Museum of San Francisco established a gallery in its new building displaying the work he donated from the collection of sikh art. In 1999, he endowed chair in Entrepreneurship at U C Santa Cruz. He was a trustee of the University of California, Santa Cruz foundation.
As an art collector, Kapani specialized in Sikh art. He provided paintings and other objects of loan for the “Arts of the Sikh kingdoms” exhibitions, which was held at the London’s Victoria and Albert Museum beginning in March 99. From there Museum proceeded to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (with Sikh Foundation as sponsors) and opened in May in Toronto. The exhibition follows “splendors of the Punjab; Sikh Art and Literature in 1992 organized by Kapany in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum and UC Berkley to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sikh foundation. As an artist Kapany’s dynoptic sculptures were displayed at the Exploratorium of the Palace of fine arts in San Francisco in 1972 and at Museums and art Galleries in Chicago.
A noted philanthropist Kapany was deeply committed to championing Sikh culture and language, creating Sikh foundation in 1967. He donated his family’s collection of Sikh art to San Francisco Asian Art Museum and funded a gallery for its display in 1999.
Kapany’s wife died long back. He is survived by his son Rajinder Singh, daughter Kiran Kaur and four grand children. (IPA Service)
PADMA VIBHUSHAN NARENDRA SINGH KAPANY WAS FATHER OF FIBRE OPTICS
A GREAT PHILANTROPIST, THIS INDIAN AMERICAN WAS AN ART COLLECTOR AS WELL
Harihar Swarup - 2021-03-17 11:09
Among this year’s Padma Vibhushan award winners, there is only one personality who got the honour posthumously. Narender Singh Kapany died only last year after reaching 94 which few people reach. Many achievements stand to his credit; very few have reached that height of glory. He was an Indian-American physicist best known for his work on fibre optics. He is credited with coining the term fibreoptics and is also considered ‘father of fibre optics’. Magazine Fortune named him one of seven ‘Unsung Heroes’ in their ‘Businessmen of the century’ issue in 1999. He was awarded India’s second highest civilian award the Padma Vibhushan posthumously this year.