Memories of Kenyon Kash

Patti Fields

Oh Kenyon, wish you’d stay vegan and stayed around!!! You’re gone too soon 💛💛💛💛

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Patti Fields

A sweet kind man. So sorry he left earth. Perhaps it is better where he is. Can’t get worse. Big hugs to you Kenyon, wherever you are💕💕💕💛

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Patti Fields

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Patti Fields

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Patti Fields

It would be great to see you again. I’m sorry you left earth so soon. You left earth on my mother’s birthday and she left earth three days ago in 2010. Hope you’re in a peaceful and loving place where every being is a trusted and gentle friend. ❤️💕♥️

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Patti Fields

1981, Buffalo, NY, USA, Brooksville, Florida

I graduated Buffalo state and went to Sunland, California. I went vegan from living with my Aunt in California. She was living with the Phoenix family. Afterwards I came back to Buffalo and started sharing my new vegan foods with friends. Met Kenyon at a party and we had similar interests. Gymnastics and biking. Although he was the better biker, I was the better dancer. We moved in together above the bike shop where he worked. Heart Phoenix told me about her sister’s vegan Community www.GentleWorld.org in Florida. Kenyon and I decide to take a bike trip starting from Miami. We took a rent a wreck vehicle to Miami and loaded our gear onto a racing tandem that we had been practicing on. We camped out along the way like around lake Okeechobee. By the time we got to Sarasota or Clearwater, my knees had blown up with water in the knees. Kenyon biked the two of us to Brooksville where Gentle World was. He stayed awhile. I couldn’t bike. At some point after a few months he left. Never saw him again. Although we were in touch via Facebook. He was such a nice fellow.

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Wyatt Kash

2019, Port Washington, NY, USA

Kenyon's mother, brother and high school friends remembering Kenyon at memorial service at the Sands-Willets House in Port Washington.

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Wyatt Kash

1992, Southern California, CA, USA

Kenyon pausing during an unidentified bike race. (Read more more about his love for bicycling in the eulogy nearby.)

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Wyatt Kash

2019, Port Washington, NY, USA

REMEMBERING MY BROTHER – KENYON KASH
Thoughts on his life and memory:
Eulogy delivered by Wyatt Kash — November 29, 2019

To all of you who took time to join us today, my family and I want to thank you for being with us, as we remember – and celebrate the life of – my dear brother, Kenyon Kash.

I once heard it said that the idea about life is to die young… but as late as possible. Kenyon was certainly young at heart. Sadly, he passed from this world sooner than expected.

I have a lot of fond memories of Kenyon. I wish had more of them. He spent a lot of his years living in upstate New York and then Denver, Colorado — and the last 20 years of his life in Southern California. We got together when we could — and always wished we had more time in each other’s lives.

When we did get together, Kenyon always evoked a sense of wonderment and good cheer. He was full of stories he liked to share about one thing or another that he had just read or heard.

Wherever he went, though, his smile, his warmth, his kindness and enthusiasm always lit up the room… and the lives of those who knew him, as evidenced by all the kind things people wrote on his Facebook page.

Those who knew Kenyon appreciated he had a special zest for life.

He loved music and great musicians. He once persuaded my dad to take him to a Who concert way back in the early 70s, although the next day, the thing he raved about most was the warmup band: Some group named Pink Floyd. When my son, Sam, took up playing drums around the age of 10, I remember Kenyon sharing YouTube videos with him of Buddy Rich powering through drum solos — and laughing about how impossibly fast Rich was with his hands.

Kenyon had a fascination for gadgets and electronic gizmos. During another visit, I remember how Kenyon had (my kids) Madison and Sam in stitches, laughing at snapshots he kept taking, using an app on his Mac, that spun their faces into wild-looking, fun-house mirror portraits. He liked building his own customized computers — mostly I think to max out the CPUs for his video games. I got perhaps the biggest kick, though, the last time I saw him, seeing a contraption he found for his van that held his iPad in place, so he could drive around L.A. using Waze without needing bifocals! I actually think he missed his calling’s not working at the genius bar at an Apple Store.

Kenyon also found a joy in cooking. It was kind of a survival thing — after deciding to become a vegan after college. It was just easier for family or friends if he whipped up his owner dinner. He eventually returned to a regular diet. But you could tell from his collection of cooking pans and Japanese cobalt knifes that he was serious about his work in the kitchen.

We shared an appreciation for the game of baseball. He of course became a L.A. Dodgers and Angels fan, while I threw my hat in with the Washington Nationals. He and I would rag each other about who was the better rookie, Mike Trout with the Angels or Bryce Harper, before he left the Nationals for the Phillies.

I’ll always remember a night out together in Anaheim, a few years ago, sitting in front row seats at Angels Stadium that Kenyon somehow obtained, watching the Angels and Detroit go at it, and the fun we had just watching baseball together. As exciting as it was to see the Nationals win the World Series this year, I have to confess, it was a hard watching the series knowing Kenyon was no longer there on the other end of his iPhone to text or talk to.

Perhaps most of all, he found a special love for California. The last time I visited him there, three years ago, I remember walking on the Santa Monica pier with him, and listening to how he had come to embrace California’s casually endearing, artsy lifestyle and the wonderful weather. My wife Ellen, and her sister Suzanne, had the good fortune to walk that same pier with Kenyon last April. They came to the same conclusion I did that he probably wasn’t ever going to move back to New York.

On Kenyon’s character. Kenyon didn’t have an easy life — even as his kind-hearted nature made life easier for others. He was diagnosed with a form of Ulcerative colitis in 1983. That made work — and making a living — a challenge, though you’d never know it.

Kenyon always exuded a quiet dignity — and this remarkable resilience and steely determination — but he also possessed this special brand of warmth and kindness that touched everyone he befriended over the years.

He turned that kindness into a something of a career in the latter years of his life, serving as an in-home assistant for a series of home-bound individuals struggling with multiple sclerosis. His last patient, a woman named Kathleen, was just talking with my mom the other day about how amazing Kenyon was … and how much she still misses him.

Remarkable Rider. Perhaps one of my favorite memories of Kenyon — and one I’ll hold on to most — is a story he shared with me about his love for bicycling.

Back in 1971, Kenyon, was inspired to take part in 24-hour cycling marathon in Central Park. He was an impressive athlete in those days, perhaps best known as a well-like and well-respected captain of the high school gymnastic team. Wearing just cut off dungarees and sneakers and riding a second hand Schwinn, he completed 90 miles that day. The next year, it was 175. The year after, it was 310.

That effort — and the thrill of riding with some really fast guys — caught my dad’s attention. So my dad, made it his mission to find the same brand of bike the great champions rode. Somehow, he acquired a hand-made Masi from Stuyvesant Bike Shop that typically requires a 6- to 12-month wait to get. As Kenyon recalled it: “The notion of giving the equivalent to an unlicensed driver the keys to a Ferrari was purely Ed Kash!”

To a cycling aficionados of that era, though, a Masi was the most coveted human powered machine made, as Kenyon described it. The very site of one typically caused bike shop mechanics to drop their tools on the floor. Kenyon said it happened more than once.

One day, a former national cycling champion in his 50's heard about some kid seen riding a Masi in Port Washington. His name was Leo and he wanted to meet Kenyon. That led to an amazing friendship and some rigorous riding. Kenyon later described him as “my Yoda.”

Sadly, Kenyon had to sacrifice the Masi to pay for college. But he never lost his passion for racing. After moving to Buffalo for school, he discovered a community of former Olympic racers and started training the way the champions did… and began competing in races.

One of the more gratifying moments he remembered about one race, was attacking the field and getting a 30-second gap ahead of everyone else. The most ferocious sprinter — whose father was a former Olympian, Ray Castilloux — caught up to him and said, "Hey, what are you doing out here riding so fast?" Kenyon remembered it as a supreme compliment for an amateur racer like himself.

Kenyon went on to ride and train with some of North America’s elite riders, and in 1982, qualified for — and competed in — the U.S. National Time Trial (TT) Championships. He remembers “getting his clock cleaned, as he used to say,” but he remembers what a huge thrill it was to ride among the top 100 American cyclists that year.

That kind of epitomized my brother. Amazingly determined. Always kind-hearted. And quietly remarkable. It was my honor to be his brother. And I’m so glad so many of you got to share in his life.

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Wyatt Kash

1974, Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School, Campus Drive, Port Washington, NY, USA

Kenyon (pictured at center) the year he led the Schreiber gymnastics team to a division championship.

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Wyatt Kash

2019, Port Washington, NY, USA

Montage of Facebook comments from Kenyon's friends at his Memorial Service.

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Wyatt Kash

1982, Long Island, New York, USA

Portraits of Kenyon, by Chris Bain, from the summer of 1982.

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Patti Fields

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Patti Fields

He was so handsome. Glad he experienced being vegan. Probably why he was so handsome!! He was so handsome. Glad he experienced being vegan. Probably why he was so handsome!! He was so handsome. Glad he experienced being vegan.... Read more

Wyatt Kash

2019, Port Washington, NY, USA

Pictures assembled for Kenyon's memorial service.

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Robert Enoch

Kenyon Kash, I am devastated by the news I got. Wyatt, Autumn and Doris I am there with you as you grieve your loss. Your son and brother was a good man just trying to please his Dad. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body. I send my love.

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Robert Enoch

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Sandy Stefanou

1983, Buffalo, New York

After living with Kenyon in a share house with Pete and Wayne on Bidwell Parkway in 1981, I returned to BFLO in 1983 and shared a house with Kenyon above the bike shop I think. He was a Vegan then and wasn't wearing leather. I was a vegetarian. Kenyon taught me about macro nutrients. We would cook soups and tried to stay warm in that drafty old apartment. I was fortunate to catch up with Kenyon again in 1986, 1991 and finally in 1993. He was a good guy and I never saw him lose his temper. Does any remember when he went down to Florida to pick Avocados with Patti I think. They were going to ride a tandem bicycle and Patti hurt her knee quite early on and Kenyon rode most of the way by himself with Patti as a pillion passenger on the tandem. Amazing.

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Robert Enoch

Patti Fields

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Robert Enoch

Kenyon and I were roommates in College at Stony Brook. We visited Buffalo once and after I went to Law School... Read more Kenyon and I were roommates in College at Stony Brook. We visited Buffalo once and after I went to Law School he went to Buffalo... Read more Kenyon and I were roommates in College at Stony Brook.... Read more

Patti Fields

This is Patti. It was this week that I learned that Kenyon Kash had passed away. He was such a nice kind ... Read more This is Patti. It was this week that I learned that Kenyon Kash had passed away. He was such a nice kind person and he didn’t ... Read more This is Patti. It was this week that I learned that... Read more

Patti Fields

I’m sad. Thinking about him all day for several days. Wish we had stayed in touch more. Condolences to his... Read more I’m sad. Thinking about him all day for several days. Wish we had stayed in touch more. Condolences to his family. He passed on... Read more I’m sad. Thinking about him all day for several days.... Read more

Sandy Stefanou

1991, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Pete and Kenyon came to visit me in Fort Collins while I was on teacher exchange from Australia in 1991. I was lucky to have bought Kenyon's VW Rabbit and still have the licence plate. It was great catching up with the old room mates 11 years after living together on Bidwell Parkway.

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Robert Enoch

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Sandy Stefanou

1993, Mt Evans, Colorado, USA

Kenyon and Sandy on the summit of Mt Evans, Co

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Joanne Gruber

A Schreiber classmate just forwarded this link to me, and I am so shocked and saddened to hear about Kenyon's passing. We were close for a time, as I think Wyatt knows, and just hearing his name, let alone looking at these pictures, brings back myriad memories of not a simpler time but, in fact, a more complicated one, when we sometimes thought deeper thoughts and felt things more intensely. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, what more beautiful soul can there ever have been than Kenyon's? My sincere condolences to Mrs. Kash, Wyatt, and Autumn.

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Joanne Gruber

P.S. I'm sorry I can't attend the memorial service, but I am in Florida caring for my mother. P.S. I'm sorry I can't attend the memorial service, but I am in Florida caring for my mother. P.S. I'm sorry I can't attend the memorial service,... Read more

Wyatt Kash

Hi Joanne. Thanks so much for the very kind words. Very touching. Hope you've been well. Hi Joanne. Thanks so much for the very kind words. Very touching. Hope you've been well. Hi Joanne. Thanks so much for the very kind words. ... Read more

Wyatt Kash

And thank you so much, Joanne, for your thoughtfulness in making these contributions in memory of my brother.... Read more And thank you so much, Joanne, for your thoughtfulness in making these contributions in memory of my brother. And thank you so much, Joanne, for your thoughtfulness... Read more

Wyatt Kash

Santa Monica, CA, USA

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Wyatt Kash

Picture taken circa 2018 near his home in Santa Monica, California. Picture taken circa 2018 near his home in Santa Monica, California. Picture taken circa 2018 near his home in Santa Monica,... Read more

Joe DiFiore

Sorry to hear of the passing of Kenyon , he worked for my bike shop, House of Wheels for a period of time in 80's while he was interviewing for positions with various bicycle companies. A great employee and friend. Leslie was also a good friend . Will miss you , always enjoyed our conversations over the years Joe DiFiore

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Wyatt Kash

Thanks for sharing your memories, Joe. I remember Kenyon really enjoying his experience at House of Wheels.... Read more Thanks for sharing your memories, Joe. I remember Kenyon really enjoying his experience at House of Wheels. Thanks for sharing your memories, Joe. I remember ... Read more

Tom Brown

Kenyon,
Was a wonderful person with a compassionate ❤️ as well a very good athlete. A gentlemen and who will be greatly missed by many!

All the best to his family

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Wyatt Kash

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Lance Mauro

Cheryl and I are so sorry to hear about the passing of Kenyon....we were friends in Buffalo, NY during the... Read more Cheryl and I are so sorry to hear about the passing of Kenyon....we were friends in Buffalo, NY during the 80s and 90s before ... Read more Cheryl and I are so sorry to hear about the passing... Read more

Wyatt Kash

Thanks for sharing your memories, Lance. Thanks for sharing your memories, Lance. Thanks for sharing your memories, Lance.

Robert Enoch

Robert Enoch - I am going to try and attend even though I am not well. But I know he would want me there ... Read more Robert Enoch - I am going to try and attend even though I am not well. But I know he would want me there so I will be there. I... Read more Robert Enoch - I am going to try and attend even though... Read more

Susan Mendelson Stein

1974, High school sorority dance

Kenyon as I remember him. A kind person. I’m so sad to read this. My condolences to his family.

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Robert Enoch

Susan, we never met but I have heard a lot about you at Stony Brook. I send peace your way. Susan, we never met but I have heard a lot about you at Stony Brook. I send peace your way. Susan, we never met but I have heard a lot about you... Read more

Andrew Greenberg

It is of great sadness to learn about the passing of Kenyon, and my heart-felt sympathy goes out to his family, and fellow classmates from Paul D. Schreiber H.S.; he was indeed a great person.
Kenyon had a magical way of making friends, and always seemed upbeat and personable; and I think I can say-
He was loved by all!
“May the Lord be with you all”, during this very difficult time.

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Patti Fields

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