In honor of everything he's done and continues to do, the Santa Clara County Council of the Boy Scouts of America presented Caplan with its Distinguished Citizen Award at a Nov. 26 dinner event.

Before Caplan was even old enough to join the Cub Scouts, his father, Harry, became a Scout leader for Menlo Park Boy Scout Troop 151. Together with his mother and sister, Caplan says, he loved tagging along on the troop's numerous camping trips and other activities. When he joined the movement himself, Caplan rose to the level of Life Scout, which is the second-highest rank in Scouting. The highest honor a Scout can earn is the rank of Eagle, but Caplan says he was diverted by high school studies and other interests.

"I think the ideals of Scouting fit the values that I was raised with. I like Scouting because it offers a family atmosphere and a place where you can choose the things you are most interested in and what you want to learn about," he says.

The choices he speaks of are the 120 badges Scouts can earn in areas as diverse as archaeology, camping, citizenship, cooking, coin collecting, environmental science, fishing, graphic arts, hiking, journalism, leatherwork, public speaking, railroading, sailing, salesmanship, theater and wilderness survival.

"Although I was never athletically endowed, I was very competitive and I gravitated toward selling things in Scouting fundraisers. It was an outlet for my energy; I was always motivated to do my best," Caplan recalls.

He says one of his favorite campaigns was selling Christmas wreaths door to door. He even lent a hand to the Girl Scouts from time to time, he says, when his sister belonged to the group and he helped her sell Girl Scout cookies.

Upon graduating from Menlo-Atherton High School in 1960, Caplan enrolled in San José State University (SJSU) and joined the Sigma Pi fraternity. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in business management, he maintained his ties to his alma mater, serving as president of the SJSU Spartan Foundation Board; president of the SJSU Alumni Foundation; fundraiser for various academic, capital and sports campaigns; and member of the President's Advisory Council, Intercollegiate Athletic Program and various committees within the SJSU School of Business.

During his senior year of college, Caplan began working as a part-time salesman for KBM Office Furniture, which was based in downtown San Jose at the time. In 1984, Caplan bought the company and—together with his wife, Cheryl—turned it from a floundering business in the red to a healthy business very much in the black.

In 1998, the Caplans renamed their endeavor kbm|Workspace to better reflect what it had evolved into—a full-service office furniture dealership and a provider of workplace solutions such as space planning, design, cost management and field services. They also expanded the business to include clients throughout the United States as well as Canada, Mexico and Western Europe. Although Cheryl has since retired from the company, the couple's older son, Michael, and his wife now work there full time.

"The foundations for my career came from many different aspects of my childhood, including the Boy Scouts," Caplan reflects. As if being a self-employed businessman didn't keep him busy enough, Caplan is also a present or past officer, member or fundraiser with the Downtown San Jose Rotary Club, YMCA of Santa Clara Valley, KTEH Public Television Board of Directors, Santa Clara County Boy Scouts Golf Tournament Committee, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network Healthy Community­Healthy Economy initiative, Silicon Valley Business Inc. Advisory Board, San Jose Hospital Board, Good Samaritan Health System, The Health Trust and Health Dimensions Inc.

When asked how he managed to keep so many balls in the air, Caplan chuckles and says he hears that question quite often. "The biggest part of it is being organized," he says simply.

"Some people read incessantly; some spend hours in the gym—everyone has their 'thing.' I've always enjoyed doing things outside of my business and meeting people who aren't connected with it, people I wouldn't normally meet," he adds.