• College/Year: R-N '50
  • Links to Oral History Sessions: Kapner, Burt (August 19, 2013)
  • Conflict(s): World War II
  • Military Branch & Unit: Navy
  • Theater(s): Home Front
  • Navy Other: Naval corpman in psychiatric units

Description:

Burt Kapner was born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey.  He grew up in a Jewish family in the Weequahic section of Newark. 

During World War II, Mr. Kapner served in the U.S. Navy on the home front.  He served as a naval corpsman in hospitals in California and Texas in psychiatric units, including units that were studying combat fatigue or what now is known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

After the war, Mr. Kapner went to Rutgers-Newark on the GI Bill and graduated in 1950.  While he was at Rutgers, he majored in accounting and played freshman basketball.

During his career, Mr. Kapner worked as a buyer for Macy's and Rockower Brothers.  He later worked as a business professor at Union County Community College.  He and his wife raised their family in South Plainfield, Plainfield and North Plainfield.