Clifford Mark Kaufman

Cliff Kaufman passed away on September 1, 2015 at the age of 60 after a battle with kidney cancer. He grew up in Maryland, but spent a significant portion of his adult life in North Carolina. He graduated with a BA in Chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill and earned a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from LSU. In his professional life, he served as a top-level executive at M-real, Terminal Corporation, International Paper, Glatfelter Company, and Olin-Ecusta among others. He served on the adjunct research faculty at NC State, which initiated his passion for mentoring. In the later years of his career he mentored young entrepreneurs through SCORE and the North Carolina Executive Roundtable, an organization he helped establish.

Cliff was an avid and accomplished competitive duplicate bridge player, winning local, regional and national events with his long-time devoted partner and wife, Jill Kaufman. He had a wicked sense of humor, loved games of strategy, his Chihuahuas Pico and Minnie, and his new grand-dog Bear. He took delight in challenging his great-niece with math puzzles and was able to soothe any baby within minutes.

Cliff was a devoted husband, father, uncle and brother and he will be remembered with much love.

Cliff is survived by his wife, Jill; his children, Brian, Charlotte and Laura (Trevor Mowry); brother, Todd (Jennifer) and sister, Sandy (Kenny Friedman).

Funeral services will be held Thursday, September 3 at 10:30 am at Raleigh Memorial Park, 7501 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh with a reception following at Kirk of Kildare Presbyterian Church, 200 High Meadow Drive, Cary. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Cliff’s memory to the Kidney Cancer Foundation at www.kidneycancer.org through the “Get Involved” tab.