09/17/2025
Honoring Jay Kitnick, founder and president of Windsor Optical, now Windsor Eyes. In 1971 Jay started Windsor. At that time, the optical industry in the US was a wide open playing field and Jay rounded the country. The industry was small, independent, and family-run. Ennio, sitting to his right at a beach house in NJ, was Windsor's first supplier. But like many back then, he was more than a manufacturer in northern Italy, to our family he was a good friend, and his family was our family. Ennio can still be found hiking in the Dolomites every week. Nineteen years ago today, Sept. 17, Jay died. Coincidental that Vision Expo West was happening at this time too. Since then, my brother Ken has led Windsor upholding the familial feel and love that Jay had for this industry. Kudos to that. Maybe he'll run into some from that era at this week's VEW. I'm happy to be a part and be able to share.
