Harpers to Receive ATEA Silver Star Award

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The American Technical Education Association (ATEA) recently announced that Ron and Katherine Harper, founders of global anilox supplier Harper Corporation of America, will receive the association’s Silver Star Award at the ATEA’s 45th National Conference on Technical Education this spring in Biloxi, Mississippi.

This award is presented jointly by the American Technical Education Association and the National Technical Honor Society each year to recognize exceptional support and commitment to advancing postsecondary technical education.

Rich Wagner, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, Minnesota, nominated Mr. and Mrs. Harper for the award.

The Harpers are well known in the flexography industry for their philanthropy in flexo education. It began in 1990, when the couple recognized the need for more high school vocational programs, and with the donation of their time, attention and funding, they paved the way to establish a flexographic printing program at South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, N.C. Since then, they have been instrumental in setting up educational programs at other area schools. Today 21 high schools and 32 colleges in the U.S., Canada and Argentina have vocational programs based on the ones the Harpers helped initiate.

Recognizing the Internet’s potential to reach further on behalf of the educational community, last year the Harpers became the founding sponsors of the Flexographic Technical Association’s TEST (Technical Education Services Team) Program, an international virtual campus initiative for flexo education.

Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte and Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., are also beneficiaries of the Harpers’ commitment to education. CPCC’s southwest campus is called the Harper Campus, and it features the Harper National Flexographic Center. On Appalachian State University’s campus, Katherine Harper Hall houses the school’s graphics education program and administrative offices, and the Harper Flexographic Museum chronicles the history of flexography.

DiTrolio Flexographic Institute in Chicago features the Ron and Katherine Harper Flexo Lab. The Flexo Trade School in Fort Mill, S.C., boasts a state-of-the-art Harper Lab of Flexography. Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis is introducing a new Harper Graphics Technology Center in addition to its Harper Wall

Other enduring testaments to the. Harpers’ dedication to technical education are the Harper Endowment at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, and the Harper Scholarship Fund and the Harper Flexo Technology Wing at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The Harpers also helped found and continue to offer critical financial support and guidance to the Phoenix Challenge Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting flexography education. Just last year, in addition to their other work with the Foundation, the Harpers established the Katherine Harper Teachers’ Education Fund to address the need for broader and more intensive flexo education for instructors.