Irving L. Kass

[12 August, 1940 - 1 January, 2005. Reprinted from
the Henry George News, January-April, 2005]

IRVING LOUIS KASS was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1962, majoring in Psychology. He became a qualified computer programming expert long before that profession came to define our age. He may be called a true pioneer in the field and his later professional life was influenced by this background.

He worked in IT and office management for Sun Chemical and then became a telecommunications and direct mail marketing expert.

From early on Irving Kass had a strong commitment to the philosophy of Henry George. The legendary Jack Schwarzmann was one of his first teachers. He became a volunteer teacher at the New York School in the early nineties and later joined the Board of Trustees where he served as a life-time member.

He impressed his students, friends, and fellow Georgists alike with an even and reliable personality, a rare combination of strength of character, generosity, a genuine sense of humor, and an almost old-fashioned kindness of manners, a great mental acumen and a rare organizational skill.

In addition to his crusade for social justice he had a strong interest in folk dancing. In 1983-84 he served as the treasurer of the National Board of the Country Dance and Song Society. Admired for his graceful and smooth style, he was a member of the Chelsea English Country Dance Troupe, which performed English country dancing at regional festivals and events. He recently appeared in a documentary on the life of Jane Austen, a Working Dog Production on the Biography Channel/A& E.

While he participated in and taught, several folk dance forms, including Scandinavian couple turning dancing, he was most active in English and American country dance. He was a member of the New York Dance Activities Committee, which later became Country Dance New York Inc., which has sponsored social dances in New York City for over fifty years. In addition, he has organized dance events, and had participated in dance sessions at camps and festivals throughout the New England area, and the northeast.

His strong advocacy for social dance promoted a vital and strong community of dancers which mourn his loss. He is survived by his domestic partner Elizabeth Friedman, a lawyer for the NYC Law Department, his mother Anna Kass, resident of Pembroke Pines, Florida, his sister Selma Goldwasser, Jerusalem, Israel, and many nieces, nephews, cousins, grandnieces, and grandnephews. He is sorely missed by his friends, family, colleagues, business partners and last but not least by his friends and colleagues at the Henry George School.