Kator, Parks & Weiser sadly note the passing of Irving Kator, the firm's founder and our collective hero. The following is a report from the Washington Post regarding Irv's insurmountable spirit, boundless energy, and exceptional life.

Irving 'Irv' Kator, 88; Lawyer Represented Federal Workers

By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2008; B07

Irving Kator, 88, a Washington lawyer who specialized in employment law involving federal employees, died June 3 of a heart attack in Paris on his way to Berlin. The Bethesda resident collapsed in an airport and died shortly afterward at Jean Verdier Hospital.

As a lawyer with Kator, Parks & Weiser, the firm he founded in 1975, Mr. Kator represented several memorable clients, including a Catholic chaplain who successfully sued the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center after being fired for his Catholic beliefs, and a National Security Agency employee who claimed she was a victim of reprisal after urging the agency to hire more Hispanics. He also represented a Federal Aviation Administration employee who charged that he had been exiled to Seattle in a "phony" job after claiming the agency had ignored key safety issues.

His clients included a former Redskins football player who won his case against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after being fired from his public information job for allegedly using government phone lines and credit cards to make personal long-distance calls. More recently, Mr. Kator represented the local United Way chapter against allegations of financial mismanagement.

Before going into private practice, Mr. Kator was assistant executive director of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, where he was responsible for implementing the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which extended protections against employment discrimination to government employees.

"He wrote many of the regulations that are still in effect for EEOC," said Michael Kator, his son and law partner.

Mr. Kator, known as Irv, was born in Binghamton, N.Y., and grew up during the Depression, an experience that had a profound effect on his life. He started working at 13 delivering newspapers and kept working until the day he died.

"His experience was that everyone had to pitch in to get through tough times, and it was the government's responsibility to help people," his son said. "He grew up believing that having a job was a privilege."

Mr. Kator attended New York University for a year and then transferred to the University of Michigan, graduating in 1941. He worked briefly with the federal government in Washington before enlisting in the Army Air Corps, where he was assigned to the 23rd Fighter Group, commonly known as the Flying Tigers.

Accepted to flight school, Mr. Kator had no trouble flying a plane, but he had no idea where he was going, he told relatives years later. Once, during training, he landed beside a road and asked a passerby for directions. Not surprisingly, he washed out of flight school and spent the duration of World War II with a communications group in the China-Burma-India theater.

Returning to Washington after the war, he joined the agency that was the forerunner to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and experienced what his son called "a meteoric rise" -- perhaps because he was dating the boss, the woman who became his wife in 1949. He also attended George Washington University Law School at night, receiving a degree in 1951.

Mr. Kator became a lawyer with the Civil Service Commission in the early 1950s and assistant executive director and assistant to the chairman in 1969.

He enjoyed his work and spending time with his extended family. The day before he left for Paris, he attended the bat mitzvah of a great-niece and had recently traveled to Missouri to attend the bar mitzvah of a distant cousin.

His wife and former boss, Ida Kator, died in 2007.

Survivors, in addition to his son, of Potomac, include two children, David Kator of Berkeley, Calif., and Anne Kator of Chicago; and eight grandchildren.

Guest Book for Irving Kator