July 5, 1934–June 18, 2025
When Joseph Kemper Matt Sr. ’57, P’94,’00, president of Dupli Envelopes and Graphics, saw a fax machine for the first time, he knew his Syracuse-based company was in trouble. “I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s going to hurt us,’” he told the Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) in 2009. But instead of panicking, he looked forward. “We decided we had to do something else. The company broadened its business to include business cards, which at the time other printers didn’t want to do.”
Dupli broadened its business to include corporate identity materials, such as letterhead, business cards, and brochures for some of the largest companies in America. It counted HSBC Bank and Sherwin-Williams paint company among its customers.
“I enjoy getting up and working every day,” he said in 2009, the year he was honored with a spot on the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) Hall of Fame. Before all that, he was said to have invented one of the great 1980s fads: the beer ball (a hard plastic container, perfectly round, that held a little more than 5 gallons of draft beer).
After attending Colgate, he served in the U.S. Army, followed by a year at brewer’s school before joining the family brewery, Matt’s. “A significant contribution at the brewery was Kemper’s role in the debut of the Matt’s Beer Ball in the 1970s,” his obituary says. “This product became a campus sensation through the ’80s and still stirs fond memories.”
“Really, it was a tremendous idea,” nephew Fred Matt, now Matt Brewing’s president, said in a 2023 Post-Standard article. “They were light and portable.”
In 1980, Joseph Kemper Matt Sr. bought Dupli Envelopes and Graphics. “Starting with limited print knowledge, the early days at Dupli were ‘trial by fire,’” his obituary says. “However, like anything else in his life, Kemper worked hard to master his craft and became a major player in the industry.”
Newspaper archives report that the company had five employees when he bought it; by 2009, it had grown to 165 employees.
“Dupli operates an extremely streamlined operation, allowing customers to order everything online so that they don’t have to keep stacks of stationery in a warehouse,” the Post-Standard reported. “The company also buys all its electricity from wind generators, uses soy-based inks, and prints on recycled paper or paper made from sustainable forests.”
His company’s numbers were secondary to him, though. Kemper was “most interested and proud of the team he had built,” his obituary says. “He knew every person personally and was known to sing happy birthday to every employee on their special day.”
Matt served on numerous boards, including The Matt Brewing Co.; Utica Cutlery; M&T Bank Advisory Board; Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield; Farmers and Traders Life Insurance Company; Canterbury Press; and Harrington of Vermont Inc. He also served on the nonprofit boards of the Dunbar Association, The United Way, MACNY, Centerstate CEO, and the Envelope Manufacturers Association.
He proudly was a delegate for George H.W. Bush at the 1992 Republican Convention in Houston. “He truly enjoyed and would actively pursue conversations with anyone who had a different opinion,” his obituary says. “Recently [he was] a proud member of the Open Discourse Coalition from Bucknell University, where his grandson Kemper attends.”
Matt’s recent honors include the 2024 Rescue Mission Hope Award Citizen of the Year and the 2024 Distinguished Citizen of the Year award from the Boy Scouts.
He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Angela; their three children, including J. Kemper Jr. ’94 and Conrad ’00; four grandchildren; his sister; his brother; sisters- in-law; a brother-in-law; nieces and nephews, including William Matt ’83, Lawrence Owens ’84, Linda Buckley ’87, Kathryn Milazzo ’00; and great-nephew Cullen Matt ’17. He was predeceased by two brothers; a brother-in- law; and a sister-in-law.
Excerpted and reprinted with permission from a Post-Standard/Syracuse.com article