[blindlaw] Paul Edward Knisbacher Kay Dies at age 71

Mildred Rivera-Rau mildredrivera at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 11 02:44:15 UTC 2009


Thank you for sending this out! It was very informative and heart warming. I am sorry for your loss especially. 

--- On Sat, 1/10/09, LPovinelli at aol.com <LPovinelli at aol.com> wrote:

From: LPovinelli at aol.com <LPovinelli at aol.com>
Subject: [blindlaw] Paul Edward Knisbacher Kay Dies at age 71
To: nfb-web at nfbnet.orgk, david.andrews at nfbnet.org, blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009, 8:04 PM

 
Paul Edward Knisbacher Kay Dies at age 71 
By Harold Snider and Larry Povinelli 
We report with great sorrow the untimely death of Paul Kay, a longtime  
leader in the National Federation of the Blind, after a protracted illness on  
Wednesday, January 7, 2009. We would like to recall Paul’s life and 
achievements. 
Paul Edward Knisbacher was born on February 22, 1937 in Vienna, Austria.  
Paul’s early life was traumatic. His family fled from the Nazi takeover  of 
Austria in November, 1938. First they  fled to Belgium for about a year. When 
the  Nazis invaded Belgium in  1939, they again fled to England. The young 
family survived  the Blitz in London and after eighteen months in  England 
immigrated to the  United  States in early 1941. On arrival, Paul’s father 
changed 
the family name from Knisbacher to Kay.  He thought that the family would 
flourish  with more Anglicized names.  In  1981, Paul had the opportunity to 
revisit his family home in Vienna, Austria which had been confiscated by  the
Nazis. 
He was able to meet his old nanny and the reunion was both happy and  
tearful. 
Paul grew up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City. From the 
 age of 10 Paul began to loose his sight.  In high school he was diagnosed 
with Retinitis Pigmentosa, which led to  Paul’s blindness.  Paul also had  
severe hearing loss later in life.  Paul graduated from Taft  High School in
1956 
and then attended  The College of Insurance in Brooklyn NY  where he obtained a

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in 1961.  
In the 1960s, Paul worked as an independent insurance  broker in New York  
City. He also obtained training and was licensed as a  Masseur. But neither 
career truly satisfied Paul’s ambitions. With encouragement  from his family
and 
members of the National Federation of the Blind, Paul  entered law school at 
New  York University in September, 1971.  Paul first joined the National 
Federation  of the Blind in the summer of 1968 in New York City.  He attended
his 
first National  Convention in 1969.  Paul joined the  student division in 1970,

where he served as Vice President and later the  National Association of Blind 
Lawyers, where he was an active member for 33  years.  This experience changed 
his  life.  At the same time Paul always  loved big dogs and was a guide dog 
user for many years after law school.  He had five guide dogs during his  
life.   
On graduating from law school in 1974, Paul moved to  Washington DC to accept 
a position as Staff Attorney with  the U.S. Maritime Administration, an 
agency of the Department of Commerce. He  was employed by the government for
eleven 
years, leaving to enter private law  practice in 1985 where he began 
practicing Criminal Law in the DC Superior Court  and the U.S. District Court
for the 
District of Columbia.  In 1993, Paul and Larry Povinelli became  law partners 
and created a professional corporation.  The corporation expanded its practice 
to  include numerous areas of the law. Paul and Larry practiced law together 
until  his death.     
On Paul’s arrival to Washington in 1974, he immediately became part  of the 
leadership of the newly reorganized NFB of DC. He remained an active  leader, 
board member and officer for the remainder of his life. Paul served as  
President of the DC affiliate from 1978 to 1980, distinguishing himself for his
 
advocacy and leadership in educating the DC City Council about blindness. Paul 

was also actively involved in the Sligo Creek Chapter of the NFB of Maryland
and 
 the Potomac Chapter of the NFB of Virginia.  
Although Paul lived in Washington for thirty-five years, you could  never 
mistake him for anything other than an extreme New York Yankee fan.  In 2007,
on 
the occasion of his  seventieth birthday close friends of Paul gave him a 
great surprise, a return  visit to his old home in the Bronx and a game  at
Yankee 
Stadium where he was able to cheer for his beloved New York Yankees.  
Paul loved his baseball as he loved life.  Nothing stopped him from 
succeeding at  whatever he wanted to do.  If you  took the time to get to know
Paul, 
you would have come to know a great friend,  who had a heart of gold.  He will 

dearly missed by his family and friends.   
A memorial service will be held at 10 AM on Sunday, January 10, 2009 at  
Louis Suburban Chapel in Fair  Lawn, New Jersey.  Paul will be buried next to
his 
mother  and father.  
.  
Paul is survived by his sister, Elizabeth Kay  Goldstein
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