Kenneth (Ken) Kunken

Ken Kunken is a quadriplegic attorney, author, and disability advocate whose life changed in an instant — and who spent the next five decades refusing to let that instant define him.

In 1970, as a junior in Cornell University's College of Engineering, Ken broke his neck making a tackle on a kickoff, sustaining a spinal cord injury at the C4-5 level that left him almost completely paralyzed from the shoulders down. He spent more than nine months in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. While still a patient, he testified before a United States Senate subcommittee on health care chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy.

In 1971 — nearly twenty years before the Americans with Disabilities Act — Ken returned to campus. He estimates he had to be pulled up or bounced down close to 100 steps just to attend his first day of classes. He became the first quadriplegic to graduate from Cornell University, and later the first to earn a graduate degree there.

Wanting to work with and help others, Ken earned a Master of Arts in education at Cornell and a Master of Education in psychology at Columbia, then became a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor at Abilities Inc. Still not finished, he enrolled at Hofstra University's School of Law, earning his Juris Doctor in 1982 — beginning his career as a quadriplegic attorney at a time when few courtrooms were built to accommodate him.

Ken joined the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, where he spent more than 40 years, rising to Deputy Bureau Chief of the County Court Trial Bureau and supervising more than 20 assistant district attorneys and over 50 student interns. In December 2023, the office established "The Kenneth J. Kunken Award," presented annually to an outstanding prosecutor who personifies his spirit and dedication.

His memoir, I Dream of Things That Never Were: The Ken Kunken Story, was published in October 2023 and is available at kenkunken.com. Ken married Anna in 2003, and in 2005 they became the parents of triplet sons — Joey, Jimmy, and Timmy — who graduated from Oceanside High School in 2023, fifty-five years after their father.

As a quadriplegic attorney, author, and speaker, Ken has spent years trying to inspire people to do more with their lives, and to keep expectations high — for themselves and for everyone around them.