Howard Kimmel’s Corner

In March, my wife, Sylvia, and I nearly didn’t get into the memorial service for our late friend, Bill Klatsky. There were so many people at the O.B. Davis Funeral Home in Miller Place; we had to inch our way through the crowd of family and friends to pay our respects to Bill’s widow, Adelaide, and their son, Scott. The throng was made up of Bill’s friends: dozens and dozens of past, present and future leaders of Long Island’s governments, development policy planners, and for profit and non-profit institutions. A history of affordable housing on Long Island could have been written along with several tomes of biography about Bill.

 Bill never liked being called by his given first name, Wilbur. Only his wife called him Wilbur and not when she was really pleased with him. Bill was a charter member of the original Kimmel Foundation as well as being the founder of the Community Development Corporation of Long Island. His last assignment that I knew of was his being named to the State Banking Commission.

 If you weren’t among the fortunate who knew him and asked me what quality he had that came to mind first, I’d say generosity. That the Kimmel Foundation is among the few non-profit developers of housing that have built successful housing is due in no small part to Bill Klatsky. He knew more about financing the construction of non-profit housing and the few banks willing to help than anyone. And he made that priceless knowledge available to us because we asked him.

 Thanks Bill you will be remembered, and missed.