By GREGORY ZELLER //
Family, friends and colleagues are mourning the death of a Long Island construction-industry icon.
Jack Kulka, the outspoken founder of The Kulka Group and a founding member of the Hauppauge Industrial Association (now the HIA-LI), passed away Sept. 30 at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island in Mineola. He was 79.
Both the Hauppauge-based Kulka Group, founded by its namesake in 1974, and the industrial association, cofounded by the magnate in 1978, have carved enduring legacies.
Now boasting more than 1,000 member companies and 4,500-plus individual members representing numerous sectors, the HIA-LI remains an important voice for regional business interests, providing a dynamic forum for professional networking, collaboration and government lobbying.
Jack Kulka: Doer, dreamer.
“Jack built an empire,” noted HIA-LI President and CEO Terri Alessi-Miceli. “And as one of the original founders of the HIA-LI, (he) was a driving force.”
Meanwhile, The Kulka Group – now under the steady hand of CEO Devin Kulka, one of Jack’s five children – has amassed a $3 billion portfolio, packed with 22 million square feet of commercial construction across New York, New Jersey and Florida.
That 48-year worksheet includes dozens of high-profile Long Island projects – an expanded Yaphank headquarters for Amneal Pharmaceuticals, extensive work on the Inn at Fox Hollow boutique hotel in Woodbury, numerous residential projects across the Hamptons and more.
“My father was a visionary businessman and a strong advocate for Long Island and the working people who make it what it is,” Devin Kulka said Friday. “He helped shape the Long Island landscape forever.”
In addition to his business successes, the deeply spiritual Kulka – who held leadership positions with the Holocaust Memorial Committee of Long Island and the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center, among other community organizations – was a fixture of regional socioeconomics for decades.
He was a member of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers and an advisory board member of the Islip-based Touro Law Center, the Woodbury-based Bi-County Political Action Committee and the HIA-LI.
A past president of both the HIA and the Farmingdale College Foundation, Kulka – who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964 from the New York University College of Engineering (now the NYU Tandon School of Engineering) – was also an energetic contributor to Suffolk County Crimestoppers, the United Way of Long Island, the Hauppauge Educational Foundation and a host of other community, political and professional groups.
It’s the American Dream epitomized – an only child born to immigrant parents in the Bronx becoming a regional socioeconomic influencer with a full brood of kids and grandkids and billion-dollar clout.
And the best part, according to Alessi-Miceli, is it’s all true.
Terri Alessi-Miceli: Learned from the best.
“He was relentless about everything he did and showed us what real tenacity looked like,” the HIA-LI president said in a statement. “I was fortunate enough to have worked alongside him and he showed me that if you bring the right people together for the right reasons, anything can get accomplished.
“I felt privileged to work and learn from him.”
Donations in Kulka’s honor can be made to Chabad of Mid Suffolk, the Suffolk Y JCC, the Hauppauge Industrial Association Scholarship Fund, Suffolk County Crimestoppers, the Family and Children’s Association of Long Island and Long Island Home Builders Care, the charitable arm of the Long Island Builders Institute.
The breadth of the organizations he touched is only one corner of Kulka’s legacy, according to his son and successor at The Kulka Group.
“His legacy is his large, blended family, the business he created and the friendships he made throughout his life,” Devin Kulka said. “We thank everyone for their well wishes at this challenging time for our family.”
