The chair of the UrbanGlass board from 2001–2005, Paul Gumbinner died at his home in New York City on April 3, 2026, surrounded by his wife, Amye Price Gumbinner, and his children Liz and Jeff. A father and a husband, Gumbinner was also a glass collector, an ad-man, and a recruiter of advertising talent. He was active in the New York City-based Metropolitan Contemporary Glass Group.
Fellow glass collector Fred Sanders credits Gumbinner for recruiting him to the UrbanGlass board after the two met at the collector's group.
"What stood out to me was that he was a very kind person," Sanders told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. "Always very personable, a good listener. He was a connector of people and very inspiring." After first meeting through MCGG, Sanders and his wife became close with the Gumbinners, and their connection continued after a 2015 accident left Gumbinner with significant mobility challenges.
"Paul was the most upbeat person we knew," Sanders wrote in a message to fellow MCGG members announcing his friend's passing. "Paul's main concern was for Amye, who served as his loving companion, patient advocate, and caregiver for the long haul."
"He could have collapsed into despondency after his accident," his daughter, Liz Gumbinner wrote in her moving Substack essay on her father's passing. "Especially after he had to shutter his business, rearrange his life around doctor’s appointments, and endure multiple treatments and medications and hospital stays due to the increasingly uncooperative kidneys that eventually took his life.
"He could have lost himself in despair and given up.
"Instead, he became the Bionic Man. He just kept going."
Collector Doug Anderson first met Gumbinner in the 1970s, when his wife introduced him to her high-school friend. Anderson says it was Gumbinner's gift for socializing that made it natural for him to move from advertising executive to a recruiter of talent, opening his own agency.
"Paul was a great cook," Anderson told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. "We used to make fabulous Thanksgiving dinners for about 40 friends and family."
While Gumbinner's daughter confirms her late father's dedication to culinary arts, she saw he appreciated something else even more.
"While he had many passions, nothing in the world mattered to my dad more than his family," she writes in her Substack essay.
"My father didn’t want a funeral or any fussy formal memorial," Liz adds. "If you want to honor him, please consider a donation in his name to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Saint Judes Children’s Hospital, or the ACLU."