CITY OF STAMFORD CITIZEN OF THE YEAR

Joseph Mitchell Kaye was born on January 28, 1920, in Kaunas, Lithuania. He immigrated to the U.S. at about three years old and became a U.S. citizen at the age of nine. He attended A.B. Davis High School in Mount Vernon, New York, and graduated from City College of New York. He served in the Army beginning in February 1942 after being turned down the day after Pearl Harbor Day due to imperfect vision. He was assigned to the Signal Corps in the United States Army Air Forces. He earned the rank of Master Sargent and served in France and England. After the war, he served in the New York National Guard. Joe married and attended Yale Law School. After graduation, Joe and Miriam (Mimi) moved to Riverside. Joe practiced law in Greenwich for his entire career at the firm of Hirschberg, Pettingill, Strong, and Nagle (later known as Whitman and Ransom). He and Miriam, both of whom were only children, raised a family of nine children (six of whom became attorneys). Joe passed away on December 2, 1994, at the age of 74.