The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Never use blindness as an excuse’
Lions Club honors Marty Knight’s significant contributions to sight impaired
MIDDLETOWN — A longtime advocate for the city’s sight-impaired residents was honored by the local Lions Club for his dedication to making Middletown an easier place to navigate for the blind.
About 15 individuals, a majority of them club members, gathered downtown Thursday on a sunny, early fall morning at the South Green to dedicate a bench to longtime member Marty Knight, who was clad in his bright yellow Lions vest with a matching tie decorated with tiny shapes of the state of Connecticut.
Knight, who has retinitis pigmentosa and is well-known for his community service, sense of humor, friendly disposition and infectious smile, and “has a heart of gold and is always looking out for other people, and has altruism built into who he is,” officials said.
Retinitis pigmentosa refers to a group of inherited diseases causing retinal degeneration, according to the Foundation Fighting Blindness. His sister and brother also have the condition but his parents do not.
“Service has been a part of me since I was not able to do my part in service to my country, but I’ve done service in many other ways. When I got the news on March 15, 1967, that I was being declared blind, I considered that a good news/bad news thing,” Knight said.
“The good part is I finally knew why I wasn’t seeing as well as I could. When the doctor explained what I was going to go through, he thought I was in denial. No one had explained it to me that day.”
But later, Knight helped bring audible crosswalk signal to the city in the mid-1990s so people could safely venture into the pedestrian walkway. Prior to that, Knight said, he listened for the flow of traffic to gauge when it was safe to proceed across the street.
“Some people say ‘visually impaired,’ but I’ve been that way for the last 51 years, so it doesn’t bother me. I used the word ‘blind.’ ”
Knight said his parents sat him down after his diagnosis, and told him they expected he would live as normal a life as possible. “‘The most important thing we’ll never expect of you is that you never use your blindness as an excuse,’ ” he was told.
“I had a few too many close calls. As I said at the time, I don’t have a white cane, I have an aiming stick. I was very cautious stepping off the curb, especially after right on red went into effect.”
Knight has enjoyed 45 years of continuous service to the Lions.
From 1973 to 2001, he was a member of the Advisory Board for the Lions Gallery of the Senses at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. Since 2002, Knight has served as president of the local Lions Club three different times, and was zone chairman from 2003 to 2007. He is also a Lions Club International Foundation Melvin Jones Fellow, and Connecticut Lions Eye Research Foundation Knight of the Blind.
Knight worked as a darkroom technician for Middlesex Hospital from 1974 to 2008, and in 2004, he was first runner-up for the Frank R. Corocoran Employee Recognition Award, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
President Howard Geltman said he was 13 when he met Knight, when they attended a school of the blind together.
“Marty has been a longstanding Lion, but I’m also honored to be his friend,” said District 23 Governor Laura Rowe as she pinned the International Lions pin to his lapel. It is emblazoned with the motto “we serve in peace.”
There are four counties in the district: New London, Tolland, Windham and Middlesex, Rowe said, and 1,700 members.
“How much did you pay these people?” friend Elderrean “Ellie” Paules joked after the ceremony.
Half of Middletown Lions Club members are blind, she said.
Knight said he was proud to have graduated from Oak Hill School, “where I was able to participate in everything the students did without being considered a liability,” unlike what his hometown school district offered at the time. Afterward, he attended community college.
“How many times have you walked through this park?” one person asked Knight.
“Several thousand times,” he joked.
“Marty, I just broke your bench,” Paules said after taking a seat next to him.
“We know where to find Ellie now,” someone in the audience said.
“I’ll be in the park!” she replied.
“One of our mottos is ‘where there’s a need, there’s a Lion,’ ” Rowe said, adding most chapters have older members. “Unfortunately, there’s so much need, we need to keep bringing in more Lions because we have so many projects,” among them Camp Rising in Colebrook.
Every August, children with cancer can attend the summer camp for a week, Rowe said. “They can go and just be kids.”
Lions also work with school districts to offer pediatric sight readings.
“I’m not going to say he’s disabled — it’s what he does because of it,” Beverly Townes said.
Knight told a story about the time he was accused of being a Peeping Tom on a hot summer night after work. He took a wrong turn at Main and Union streets, and got lost, so he went to the first house he found for assistance.
He made his way down the driveway into the backyard. Unfortunately for him, the female resident was getting ready for bed. She called the police to report a prowler.
When the officer asked for his ID, Knight mistakenly offered the card that contained his political party affiliation. When the officer asked why he was in Middletown, Knight said he lived nearby at the YMCA and worked at Middlesex Hospital.
He was relieved to learn the woman declined to press charges.
Club member Sandra Reynolds asked those in attendance to look around at the other benches at South Green/Union Park to see how Knight’s is distinguished. “It’s different, and it’s different for a reason, because Marty’s so different from us.”
“He’s different alright,” Paules said.