As he prepared to enter the Prudential Center floor along with the graduates, academic leaders and dignitaries gathered for the Kean University graduation earlier this month, Francis Walsh had to take a moment to take in the moment.
And compose himself.
“I have to tell you, I had to choke back some tears when we were coming out of the tunnel,” he said. “They had bagpipes playing. There were 18,000 people in the stands.
“It was very overwhelming for me.”
Walsh, the head of Lyndhurst-based logistics giant NRS, had been to plenty of college graduation ceremonies before. He saw his wife, Kristen Walsh, get her doctorate in education — and together, they have seen the first three of their five kids reach that milestone moment.
But it was something Walsh, who went to work in the family business right out of high school, had missed.
That’s why being presented an honorary doctorate from Kean President Lamont Repollet was the thrill of a lifetime. And the start of a new connection to higher ed.
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Henry Amoroso, a friend and a member of the NRS Board of Advisors, knew Walsh was looking for new ways to connect his fast-growing logistics operation with the next generation of talent.
So, he introduced him to Kean President Lamont Repollet. Their first meeting changed everything.
Walsh said the two talked about supply chain, internships and what it would take to build a serious logistics curriculum. But what struck Walsh was the way Repollet moved through his own campus.
“The campus is beautiful, for starters,” Walsh said. “It’s a real hidden gem.
“But when Lamont took me around in a golf cart, I was amazed at what I saw in the students and Lamont’s connection to them. The kids were happy; they were high-fiving him as we drove by. He knew everybody by name, they knew him.”
The students were both happy and serious, Walsh said.
“There’s a lot of first-generation kids there that are just hard-working grinders,” he said. “When you talk to them, they look you in the eye and they stand up straight. They are passionate about what they’re doing. They’re on a mission.”
For someone who helped build a nearly billion-dollar, family-run logistics company through hard work and smarts, Walsh recognized himself in them — and realized Kean wouldn’t just be another place to recruit interns. It would be a place to plant something bigger.
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Walsh will be making plenty more trips to campus.
NRS and Kean are launching a supply chain curriculum under the company’s name, starting with a pilot at the master’s level.
“We’re going to help write the curriculum,” he said.
The idea is simple: leverage Kean’s strong base of business students and give them a pathway into one of New Jersey’s signature industries. Students will be able to begin with traditional business administration and then migrate to a supply chain field for their master’s program, Walsh said.
For now, the effort is intentionally modest — a proof of concept with big potential.
“This summer, we’re just going to put our toe in the water,” Walsh said. “It’s a pilot. We’re going to see where it goes.”
Walsh already is thinking ahead. The offerings could extend to the undergraduate level. And they could include him.
“I will not be a full-time teacher,” he said. “But I would love to bring my customers to a class, explain what they do, have a Q&A, possibly give them internship opportunities as well for my customers. Let’s see how it takes off.”
The demand for those opportunities already is there. NRS received 1,600 internship applications this year and could only take 20.
Walsh said Kean’s students fit exactly the profile of people he wants in his industry.
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As he sat on stage, among graduates of some of the top schools in the country, Walsh admitted he had a moment or two of imposter syndrome.
“What am I doing up here,” he said he thought to himself.
To be sure, he loved the long robe.
“I felt like one of the justices of the Supreme Court,” he said.
He just wasn’t sure if it was the right fit for him. That changed when Repollet began reading his citation.
“When Lamont got up and he spoke about me, it really hit me what an honorary degree means,” Walsh said. “It’s about paying it forward, recognizing how important continuing education is. That’s when I welcomed it and embraced it.”
For Walsh, the program is as much about building a talent pipeline for New Jersey’s logistics sector as it is about cementing his own legacy.
“It’s so easy to write a check and you don’t typically see where the money goes,” he said. “With this, I really get to fingerprint what this honorary degree means to me. I get to build on it and make it part of my legacy.”
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Walsh acknowledges that he has received plenty of awards during a long career of philanthropy and business leadership.
This one, he said, is different.
“This is the only one I will display and hang on my wall,” he said.
This is the only one that has such personal meaning.
That’s why what began as a surreal walk out of a Prudential Center tunnel — bagpipes blaring, emotions welling — has turned into something Walsh never thought he’d have: a deep, ongoing relationship with a local university.
More than that, it has built a connection to the school that is stronger than he imagined. It’s one he wants to continue — not just in framed parchment, but in classrooms full of students chasing the same American story he’s been living for decades.
