Reception Celebrates Bernstein Award Gift Anniversary

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University alumnus Richard Bernstein and his family recently joined past finalists and winners of the Bernstein Achievement Award for Excellence during a reception at SU’s Franklin P. Perdue Museum of Business and Entrepreneurship.

The event celebrated the upcoming 30th anniversary of the 1986 gift Bernstein gave to create the award, which represents first prize in SU’s annual Student Entrepreneur Competitions, held each spring.

“Participating in the Bernstein competition instilled in me the importance of thoroughly researching and systematically outlining the goals and objectives of developing, patenting and manufacturing my new product, “Beach Um by J.L. Wilson, LLC,” said Janet Wilson, who earned the award in 2003.

A native of Pennsylvania, Bernstein grew up in Chincoteague Island, VA. He founded K&L Microwave, Inc., in Salisbury in 1970, serving as president and CEO of the company for more than two decades. Its success and growth into the world’s largest supplier of microwave components, used in defense, space and communications equipment, led to an expanding technology industrial base on the Eastern Shore.

His additional business interests have included the pewter and silver giftware producer Salisbury, Inc.; Machining Technologies, Inc. (MaTech), which specializes in high-tech fabrication for the defense industry; Waterside Village, a mixed-use shopping and commercial center in Talbot County, MD; REB Holdings, Inc., a private investment company; and the unmanned aircraft, avionics and sensor producer BAI Aerosystems, from which he is retired.

Bernstein has been named Ernst & Young’s Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year and Maryland’s Small Business Person of the Year, among other honors. A display in the Perdue Museum chronicles many of his entrepreneurial endeavors.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.