Alan,

Bless you my friend as long as there is a breath in me, that work will be done.

My sincerest condolances to the entire Kay family for the loss of a truly wonderful individual as I know you will continue to feel this loss forever.

My memories of Alan come from the early days of AutEx, as I was employee #13 and worked in the company for over six years.  I was hired as a receptionist, my first job following college, and was promoted to Alan's administrative assistant before the end of my first year.  I worked for him directly for three years, married & moved to Los Angeles where I was the office manager for the very newly opened West coast office.  I then returned to the home office two years later and Alan gave me a position in the Public Relations department until I left the company a year later to become a stay-at-home mother.

What a wonderful experience it was to be involved in the company working towards the go-live date. We all worked long hours but always under the direction and on-going encouragement of Alan.  Even my small contributions were noticed and appreciated.  Having little business experience, when he'd leave me hand written notes to transcribe, I didn't think it was unusual to have two lines of hand written text for every line on the page...how my eyesight survived, I don't know!  Alan was a stickler for punctuality and I learned to be on time each day, a virtue I've carried with me to this day.  I learned so much about business protocol, how to value everyone's talents and to always show kindness all from Alan.

His generosity with the staff was very memorable.  He opened his home to us very often whether it was a pool party on a hot summer night, having a hanami to show us the beautiful flowers that he tended with such loving care, or just telling everyone to go home early for a long holiday weekend.   I can also remember being put forth by the other women employees as the agent for change to get his permission for us to wear pantsuits to work.....they had just come into fashion.  He didn't hesitate for a minute in his agreement!  

One of my favorite memories, well over forty-five years old, is an evening we had dinner together.  It ended up being just the two of us and the main topic of discussion was how the Vietnam war was being waged and how very, very wrong it was.   My end of the conversation could not compare with the depth of feeling and passion that Alan displayed, but I have never forgotten that night.  His compassion and understanding was something I had not then ever experienced.

I know that my memories are not comparable to those of his peers around the world, but these simple thoughts are shared in the hope of showing how deeply his humanity touched all of us who had the privilege of knowing him, at whatever level.

My condolances to all of you who knew and loved him as he was a remarkable man.

In sincerest sympathy,

Candy Parker Mixter

IN PRAISE OF ALAN F. KAY, PhD

Like many soldiers, Private Alan F. Kay, US Army 42187381, after personal encounters with the obscenities of war, became as he would say, “a peacenik”.  As I look at the precious memento on my wrist of Alan’s US Army tag, I recall how much his World War II experience as a 20-year old shaped his life’s journey.

Alan’s war experience was as a Japanese language translator in the command of US General MacArthur’s occupation of Japan in 1945.  Alan’s keen observances of conditions in that defeated country are preserved in hundreds of hand-written letters home to his parents Harry and Ceil Kay in New Jersey.  This treasure trove came to me, since fortunately Alan’s mother Ceil kept every one, and they were returned to Alan at Ceil’s passing in her 93rd year.

After I said my last goodbyes to my beloved Alan on August 17th, 2016, I and Alan’s stepdaughter, my daughter Alexandra Cassidy, spent a tearful day reading Alan’s letter from Tokyo out loud to each other.  How miraculously healing it was to engage with Alan so vividly – as he described his daily encounters, duties and his first explorations of the Japanese culture he had studied so deeply along with the language at the University of Minnesota.  Along with Alan’s letters were many of his essays on Japanese history, art, music and cultural traditions.  This priceless collection will be donated to an appropriate institute, as a living archive of US-Japanese relations – available for study by Japanese and US scholars.

Alan Kay’s World War II experience sparked his lifelong interest in international relations, peace research, conflict resolution, diplomacy and the United Nations – and his passion for perfecting democracy.

Alan Kay witnessed General MacArthur’s exemplary occupation of Japan, fostering the writing of their constitution still in force today with its focus on human rights and equality and renouncing of military aggression.  This led to Alan’s major social innovation which he proudly launched, spending $2 million of his own funds: public interest polling.  Alan deeply believed in the collective wisdom of informed voters and rule by “we the people” as paramount.  These goals brought me and Alan together in Washington, DC, in the mid-1980s, since I was serving as a science policy wonk advisor to several US Agencies and the Congress.  We soon joined forces and remained soulmates until my beloved Alan departed this life in 2016. 

He is now in my heart every day, in the Henderson-Kay-Schumacher Library and private conference facility we created together in St. Augustine, Florida.  As I continue our work together, each day I see his picture in every room, and remember his hard work, his books and papers.  I pledge to keep his vision fresh and spend my energy as Alan wished, so our joint efforts will continue.  Alan lived his life to the hilt as he describes in his biography Militarist, Millionaire, Peacenik: Memoir of a Serial Entrepreneur (Cosimo Books, NY, 2008).  This volume and all his other books and papers will remain in our Library and available to scholars.  I am deeply inspired and full of gratitude for the 25 years Alan and I worked, lived and loved together – and for his silver bracelet US Army tag, a gift from his parents, now always around my wrist.

Hazel Henderson, October 14, 2016