DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS, HONORIS CAUSA

Steve Kalafer is an entrepreneur, businessman, film producer and philanthropist. In 1973, Steve entered the automotive industry and has built one of the most respected and successful franchises in the United States. He has over 16 brands in eight locations. As chairman, his leadership has brought Flemington Car and Truck Country and Clinton Honda national recognition at the highest level of the automotive industry for superior customer service and community involvement. 

Steve has founded or co-founded several successful businesses. He is chairman and founder of Princeton/American Communications and the Healthcare Information Network; chairman and founding investor of the Somerset, N.J.-based health care/pharmaceutical company Pharmagistics; and founding investor of RVA Consulting, LLC, a management consulting firm that merged with Cartesian in 2007. Steve has combined business acumen and entrepreneurship with his long-time love of baseball. He is one of the founding directors of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and founding chairman of six-time Atlantic League Champion Somerset Patriots — a minor league team playing home games at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, N.J. In addition, Steve is a gifted producer of documentary films. His films — which include titles such as Sister Rose’s Passion, More, Dropping Out, Curtain Call, Bottom of the Ninth — have garnered four Academy Award® nominations, Sundance Film Festival® and Tribeca Film Festival® awards, Best Documentary in the Los Angeles Short Film Festival® and Best Short Documentary at the New Jersey Film Festival®. He was awarded the Actors Fund of America Medal of Honor in April 2013.

As a philanthropist and civic leader, Steve has been deeply involved. He is a former member of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission under the Kean administration, served as an appointee to Governor Christine Todd Whitman’s Economic Master Plan Commission for New Jersey and chaired the Transportation subcommittee. Steve recently retired from the board of New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company. He’s been co-chair of the Chairman’s Council of the Actors Fund of America, the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health, and Chairman Emeritus of the Somerset Healthcare Foundation. Steve has also given generously to NJIT with the establishment of a namesake endowed baseball scholarship. Steve’s dedication and personal commitment to his community have been recognized many times over. Awards include the Raritan Valley Community College 50th Anniversary Civic Leader Award, the Anti-Defamation League’s prestigious Torch of Liberty Award, and numerous awards for his dedication to all issues that impact his community, including domestic violence and support for cancer patients and their families.