WILSON R. KAPLEN

KAPLEN--Wilson R., a builder turned philanthropist, died on Sunday at his home in Tenafly, NJ. He was 95. Born in Weehawken and educated at John Marshall Law School (now Seton Hall), he returned from service in the Second World War to start a construction company with his father, A. Kaplen & Son, and then a real-estate firm, Wilson Mgt., which acquired and ran apartment complexes around the country but mainly in New Jersey, where it was one of the largest owners of residential property. After selling his businesses in 1999, he devoted himself to a family philanthropy, The Kaplen Foundation, which he had established 30 years earlier. Especially interested in Jewish causes, healthcare, and the problems of aging, he was the driving force behind the construction of many significant charitable projects in northern New Jersey, including a new emergency wing at Englewood Hospital; the JCC on the Palisades, in Tenafly; the Jewish Home at Rockleigh; and the Jewish Home for Assisted Living, in River Vale. He is survived by his wife, Margaret; his sons, Lawrence and Alexander; his grandson, Benjamin; two stepsons, Peter and James Tate; and two stepchildren, Nicholas and Isabelle Tate-Arevalo. His oldest son, Michael, died in 1992. Funeral services will be held at Temple Sinai, in Tenafly, on Wednesday morning at 11.