Born in Hiding
Roger Kuperways was born in hiding in France, near Grenoble, and was raised in Paris.
Biography • Roger Kuperways
One life.
Many beginnings.
Author • Professor Emeritus • Entrepreneur • Philosopher • Tango Teacher
Born in hiding in France, raised in Paris, and arriving in America with twelve dollars, Roger Kuperways has spent a lifetime discovering that identity is not something we receive once. It is something we continue to create.
A Life of Reinvention
There was never just one Roger Kuperways.
He has been a couture apprentice, sewing machine operator, fashion designer, manufacturer, entrepreneur, technology pioneer, university professor, lecturer, mentor, Argentine tango teacher, philosopher and author.
Those lives may appear unrelated. Roger sees them differently. Each one began when another chapter changed—or ended—and each required the willingness to become a beginner again.
The thread running through all of them is curiosity: What can I learn? What can I build? What can I become next?
The Journey
From hiding in France to a life of many chapters.
Paris & Couture
He left school at fourteen, later earned a scholarship sponsored by the École des Beaux-Arts, and entered the Paris couture world. His early years in fashion included an apprenticeship connected with Coco Chanel and work in Paris fashion houses.
Coming to America
He immigrated to the United States with twelve dollars and two old handmade suits. He began as a sewing machine operator in a Chinatown garment factory and continued learning at night.
Fashion Designer & Entrepreneur
He moved from factory work to design and entrepreneurship, created Roger of Paris, acquired a Manhattan factory, and later built Roger Kuper, Ltd. into a successful fashion business. His designs were carried by leading stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman.
Technology & Reinvention
When his life in fashion changed, Roger reinvented himself. Fascinated by microcomputers, he created Unicon Systems, combining technology, software, consulting and his knowledge of business. He later created SuperExpo.com and other entrepreneurial ventures.
NYU Professor
Roger became a professor at New York University, teaching entrepreneurship and philosophy for nearly three decades. His own experience of beginning with almost nothing informed the way he taught business, reinvention and practical decision-making.
Tango & Another Beginning
Later in life, Argentine tango became another classroom. Roger taught tango in New York and Buenos Aires, discovering in dance another form of communication, trust, attention and human connection.
Philosophy
For much of his life, Roger believed philosophy belonged to academics. Eventually he discovered that the questions asked by the great philosophers—about happiness, fear, failure, freedom, love, meaning and death—belong to everyone.
Author
Writing became the place where the many chapters of his life could finally meet: survival, fashion, entrepreneurship, teaching, tango, philosophy, loss, gratitude and reinvention.
Why Philosophy?
The great questions do not belong only to philosophers.
Roger left school at fourteen and for much of his life believed philosophy belonged to academics. His own path—from immigrant factory worker to entrepreneur to university professor—eventually convinced him otherwise.
Socrates, Montaigne, Spinoza, Nietzsche and the other great thinkers were asking questions about the same things all of us confront: how to live, what makes us happy, how to face failure, what gives life meaning, how to love, and how to face death.
They were not questions for specialists. They were questions about how all of us live.
Roger as Author
The books bring the lives together.
After decades of doing, building, teaching and beginning again, Roger turned increasingly to writing—using his own experience as a way into larger questions about life.
BOOK
FROM CHOCOLATE TO PHILOSOPHER
A memoir of survival and reinvention—from a childhood in France and the couture world of Paris to New York fashion, entrepreneurship, teaching, tango, philosophy and the continuing search for meaning.
BOOK
IN CONVERSATIONS WITH THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
After seven years of research and writing, Roger created a book that brings the great philosophers out of the classroom and into everyday life through plain-English conversations about the questions that shape us.
BOOK
ON — REFLECTIONS
Reflections on meaning, time, love, reinvention, aging and a life well lived—short pieces that begin with ordinary experience and ask the larger question hiding underneath it.
Beyond the Résumé
A few more chapters.
Five LanguagesRoger speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian and Yiddish.
Chess, Karate & BridgeHis earlier biography records a Paris junior chess championship, a black belt in karate, and international bridge competition.
PhotographyRoger served as president of the American Photographic Historical Society, an international nonprofit organization.
Still Becoming
What does one life teach us when we have lived several versions of it?
Fashion taught me creativity.
Business taught me risk.
Teaching taught me the power of questions.
Tango taught me connection.
Philosophy taught me how to examine a life.
Writing gave me a way to bring all of them together.
I have had several lives already.
I am still writing the next one.