Petro "Pete" Kulynych

Year Inducted: 2014

Petro “Pete” Kulynych is the son of Ukrainian immigrants and left Pennsylvania's coal-mining country after high school to work for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Later, he moved to the National Park Service, attended the Merchant Marine Academy and married Roena Bullis. He then served in World War II, and used his GI benefits to pay for accounting school.

Pete Kulynych knows what it means to start at the bottom. His job as the bookkeeper for a small hardware store in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, eventually grew into serving as top executive at the same store, which grew into the Lowe's hardware chain. In 1946, owners of the North Wilkesboro Hardware, Jim Lowe and Carl Buchan, hired him at US $25 a week.

Pete has also donated millions to the two family philanthropic foundations run by his daughters. “Being able to distribute considerable income makes you get up in the morning and go to work", says Kulynych. “It's been a good life.” Kulynych started the Roena Kulynych Center for Memory and Cognition Research at Wake Forest School of Medicine in memory of his wife, Roena B. Kulynych.

In 2011, he was named Life Trustee for 40 years of service to Wake Forest University by the university's board of trustees. He also has funded research in cardiology, interdisciplinary cancer research, leukemia, urology and other areas. Other community activities include the Kulynych Foundation, Communities in Schools, and the Rainbow Center. Kulynych has received numerous honorary awards from Appalachian State University and Wake Forest University.