Giving Back
| Friends of the Emory Eye Center
The extraordinary work of Alex Katz
“part P.T. Barnum, part brains,
part chutzpah”
By
Ginger Pyron |
Photo by
David Woolf
Alex Katz discussing retinal degeneration
research with Jeff Boatright.
S
omebody, somewhere, has
probably said, “That Alex
Katz, he’s a piece of work.”
That phrase could imply anything from insult to
amusement to profound admiration. In reference to
Alex Katz, however, one can safely assume that it indicates
someone from whom one can expect surprises, at the
very least.
Abraham Katz, Alex’s father, gave his children a good
education, sturdy self-confidence, and a strong work ethic.
He told them, “It doesn’t matter what work you do. Just do
it” (and do it well went without saying). By the time Alex
reached his early teens, he was a working photographer
earning $100 to $200 cash per week—good money for a
kid in the mid-1960s. Today he’s the president of Kason
Industries, known worldwide for its production of
industrial hardware.
As trustees of the Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation,
Alex Katz and his brother David still do many things
well, specifically as they determine which organizations,
innovative research projects, and life-enhancement
programs will receive Katz Family Foundation support.
Katz is also a voracious reader and a passionate lover
of the arts. In casual conversation he can rhapsodize about
works that, for him, elicit what he calls “the wow factor”: a
masterful octave leap by Pavarotti, for instance, or the pure
simplicity and elegance in a Mozart piano sonata.
He recounts such examples to emphasize what most piques
2015 | Emory Eye 27