Robert "Bob" Ira Feinstein

Robert "Bob" Ira Feinstein died on March 18, 2022 at the age of 72. He will always be lovingly remembered by his many friends.

Born at just 1 lb 14 oz, he was completely blind as a result of overexposure to oxygen in incubation. Bob was a prolific writer starting from an early age. When he was only ten years old, he wrote to Helen Keller (https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=p&p=helenkellerdocumentdisplay&d=A-HK01-07-B140-F03-010&). Though Keller turned down his request to meet her, he crossed paths with a kind and helpful Maya Angelou during his time at Oberlin College. It was also during his time at Oberlin that he spent time studying in France with his college roommate, Ivory. He went on to earn his graduate degree in French from Middlebury College.

He led an impactful life, teaching for New York City Public Schools for 20 years and authoring numerous articles and stories. One of his most read pieces is an article describing the experience of being blind from birth and gay (https://web.archive.org/web/20170919045649/www.bentvoices.org/bentvoices/feinstein-blindandgay.htm), which went viral on Reddit in May 2017 and led to Bob participating in a Reddit AMA (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6h8upn/iama_67yearold_gay_man_who_has_been_blind_since/).

Bob loved a good meal at the Mirage Diner in his Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he resided for many decades. He loved his former guide dog Harley dearly.

Though unfortunately some of his writings that were published online have been lost to time, below are the additional ones that have been found, as well as pieces about Bob, and a New York Times article that quotes him. If any of these links don't work and you're interested, please try putting them in the "Wayback Machine", linked here: https://web.archive.org/

https://web.archive.org/web/20170925011305/http://www.bentvoices.org/bentvoices/feinstein-crowd.htm

https://dyerohmebmovingon.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/home-alone-by-robert-feinstein/

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/03/nyregion/technology-eases-the-way-for-the-visually-impaired.html

https://www.thelantern.com/2008/05/disabled-gays-suffer-double-discrimination/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqbu23EG6eY

Lastly, here is a collection of Bob's favorite quotes:

"Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members -- the last, the least, the littlest."

-Cardinal Roger Mahony

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."

-Helen Keller

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."

-Audre Lorde

"If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."

-Will Rogers