Thirty years ago, Kazuo Ninomiya was a graduate student in business administration at the University of Hartford, and Yuko Ninomiya, his wife, was teaching, performing, and studying at The Hartt School. Although they returned to Japan in 1986, their son, Kazunoti, born in Hartford, is currently pursuing his master's degree in business administration at the University's Barney School of Business.

At the time of Kazuo's graduation, Yuko was nine months' pregnant with their daughter, Marika.

Earlier this year, after a notable career in engineering, business management, and commercial development, Kazuo Ninomiya retired from Cyanamid Ltd., the Japanese subsidiary of American Cyanamid, and was given the honorary title of chairman emeritus. His retirement gave him the opportunity to start his own company, Wintonbury, Inc., which assists start-up firms that want to enter the Japanese market. Ninomiya named the company, based in Japan, for the Wintonbury Section of Bloomfield, which is adjacent to the University campus.

The Ninomiyas' bond to the Hartford area began in 1968, when the newlyweds came to Hartford. Kazuo, who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in mechanical engineering, went to work for ABB Combustion Engineering in Windsor. Seeking the means to career advancement, he enrolled in night classes in business management at Barney. Encouraged by Joseph Singer, his boss at ABB and professor of mechanical engineering at the University's College of Engineering, Kazuo earned his MBA degree in three and a half years by attending two summer sessions.

Yuko had come to the United States in 1961 as a Fulbright Scholar. A graduate of Julliard, she wanted to continue her studies and enrolled at Hartt as a piano student. She performed a number of times with the Hartt Symphony Orchestra, occasionally with Moshe Paranov conducting. She also had a one-hour solo recital broadcast on Connecticut Public Television.

In 1974, Kazuo was offered a job as a project engineer with American Cyanamid Company at its world headquarters in Wayne, N.J. In 1986, after a brief term as director of commercial development for Cyanamid Ltd., the company's Japanese subsidiary, Kazuo was recruited by CUNO, a Meriden, Conn.–based filtration company, to run its Japanese subsidiary. Returning to Cyanamid in 1994 as president of its Japanese subsidiary, he was named chairman of the subsidiary in 1999, a position he held until his retirement this year.

Following their return to Japan in 1986, Yuko pursued a career as a piano teacher. She is currently teaching at the Toho School of Music, alma mater of Seiji Ozawa, retiring music director and conductor of The Boston Symphony Orchestra. She is on the board of the Piano Teachers National Association and travels all over Japan working as a jurist for piano competitions.

Both Yuko and Kazuo have fond memories of the University, which they are reliving through Kazunori, who wanted to return to the city where he had been born and the University that his parents had attended. "We communicate frequently through the Internet, and I offer advice on how it was at the University in my time," said Kazuo.

Kazuo, who attended last summer's alumni reception in Tokyo with President Walter Harrison and Vice President W. Stephen Jeffrey, offered to help organize contacts among University alumni in Japan and throughout Asia.