At a commencement ceremony this month, Anil Kochhar astonished graduating NC State students in the Wilson College of Textiles by canceling all the student debt they had incurred during their senior year.
But the humble Raleigh native can hardly believe he’s now considered a “philanthropist.”
Kochhar’s father travelled from Punjab, India, to Raleigh in 1946 to study textile manufacturing at NC State. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Wilson College, and went on to have a career that allowed him to travel the country and the world. While studying at NC State, he met his wife, a girl from Elkin. When he died in 1986, he willed that a scholarship to Wilson College be set up in his name.
His son, the younger Kochhar, attended Broughton High School before he enrolled at NC State. During college, he transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill…