Fayetteville city leader has Azheimer's Disease

Assistant Fayetteville City Manager Jay Reinstein is retiring in October after recently being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

Reinstein, 57, has held the position for five years after moving here from Durham, where he held a number of city positions. He recently sent out an email to Fayetteville's 1,600 employees concerning his diagnosis.

“It’s been very therapeutic to go public and speak honestly about the disease.  My staff and employees have been unbelievably supportive,” Reinstein said.

Reinstein has been doing everything he can to promote Alzheimer's awareness and raise money for research and support of people with the disease.

He's created his own Walk to End Alzheimer's team called the “Jay Walkers,” which has raised more than $8,200. Reinstein said he hopes to raise $20,000.

The team will be participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer's event in Fayetteville on Sept. 8.

“We already have 70-some walkers,” Reinstein said. “We're the No. 1 fundraising team in our region. This is a team with a lot of city employees but a lot of other folks who put it on Facebook. We're starting to get some corporate donations.”

Reinstein has been asked to speak at the Alzheimer's walk event on Sept. 8 at Festival Park.

Peggy Best, director of programs and outreach for the Alzheimer's Association Eastern North Carolina Chapter, said she is grateful to Reinstein for his honesty and fundraising efforts. She said he can help the organization in other endeavors in the future.

“It is very important,” Best said. “It raises awareness about the disease and helps to erase the stigma.”

About two years ago, Reinstein said he noticed little things that didn't make sense, such as forgetting that he paid his bill at his favorite bagel shop.

On another occasion, he drove a couple of houses down from where he lives, only to have to backtrack.

“It's not forgetting where you put your keys or forgetting a person's name, necessarily,” he said. “For me, it was recalling information. It was more the short-term memory and sometimes processing, so I could be in a conversation with somebody and it was difficult for me sometimes, on occasion. I just couldn't come up with the words. And that was new to me. And I didn't think too much of it.”

He said he finally called a neurosurgeon he knew at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Henry Friedman, who got him into the Memory Disorders Clinic at Duke, which hooked him up with Dr. Richard O'Brien, a neuroligist at the clinic.

“They did neurological, psychological testing on me that they used as a baseline,” he said. “I came back eight or nine months later and they noticed about a 15 percent decline in memory.”

He was first diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's. Reinstein said they then found that he has the APOEe4 Alzheimer's gene.

“We believe it was probably passed on by my mom because Alzheimer's is on my mothers side,” he said. “But my mother is 80 and just retired sharp as a tack. She doesn't have it. My father is 84 and still working as a CPA. He could have retired 20 years ago.”

Reinstein said he has had a tremendous amount of support from city employees and City Manager Doug Hewett.

Hewett said Reinstein has his full admiration and support.

     “He has demonstrated great dignity and courage in facing this issue," Hewett said. "I can only hope that if I had something like that that I'd be able to act as he has. He has been very open.”

Hewett said Reinstein has not only been an inspiration for city employees to get involved with the upcoming Alzheimer's walk, but he also posted a public service video on YouTube about Alzheimer's.

“It just really shows a level of courage and grace that it is to be commended,” Hewett said. “It's a very difficult time for him and his family, but we are here to support him any way we can. I'd say he is heart and soul of our city manager's office. He's always thinking of other people, and even in this he said he didn't want to let me down and let the organization down. I had to remind him, I said, 'Jay, this is about your life. This isn't about you letting us down. That's not the case.' "

John Henderson can be reached at jhenderson@fayobserver.com or 486-3596.