Ruvin "Rudy" Prokupets passed away suddenly at age 63 on June 16, 2009. He is survived by his loving wife Dr. Elena Prokupets, his son Daniel; grandchildren, Ella, Samuel, Haley; sister, Ida (Joseph) Vanston; nieces, Inga Smith and Laura Makai; father-in-law, Isaac Vilnits; brother-in-law, Alex (Anna) Vilnits.

Rudy Prokupets immigrated with his wife Dr. Elena A. Prokupets and their young son Daniel to Rochester, New York from the Soviet Union in 1977. After overcoming the challenge of learning a new language in their adopted country, Rudy took a job in the Research Lab of Baush & Lomb. Outside of their full-time jobs, Elena and Rudy Prokupets worked nights and weekends on an idea that involved the management of photographs on personal computers. They presented their idea to photo giant Eastman Kodak Company. Their proposal was accepted and in 1985 their first company Edicon was born. The innovative company paved the way for digital revolution in photography, security and government identification programs, and ultimately became a $50 million division of Kodak. Rudy became Edicon's Chief Technology Officer and Elena was one of Kodak's first female executives as the division's president and general manager.

Rudy and Elena Prokupets left the Kodak in 1990 to found Lenel Systems International, Inc. Lenel began as a software multimedia company providing innovative solution to customers such as Oracle, Borland, IBM and Microsoft.

In 1995, Lenel expanded into physical and information security markets. The company's challenges in this industry were significant. It was a small start-up in a well-established market that was characterized by very large conservative companies selling proprietary hardware and software. Through the Prokupets' vision and leadership, Lenel was able to quickly establish itself as an innovative solution provider responding to customers' needs. Its unique message of "Total Security Knowledge Management", open architecture and seamless integration resonated with the customers worldwide. Lenel's "OnGuard" solution was adopted by over 10,000 customers in over 74 counties allowing it to become in a short time a dominant player in the homeland and global security markets. Lenel created a new platform standard for security systems that allowed for virtually total compatibility with any security hardware and allowed for integration with basically any other system that operated via computer or networks.