In Memory

Jack Frederick Knapp

Jack Frederick Knapp

Jan 4, 1929 - Jan 30, 1992

We have been unable to locate an obituary for our beloved Mr. Knapp. If you find it, please contact us so that we may post it here.  Also, did you attend his funeral?  Do you know where he is buried?  Any additional information would be appreciated.  Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 
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02/12/13 09:34 PM #4    

Virginia Boles (Colegrove) (1965)

Jack Knapp was a wonderful teacher and a true gentleman.  He inspired each of us to learn and care about our country and our surroundings. He stayed in touch with me for several years after graduation. In fact, somewhere I have notes and cards he sent to my son while I was pregnant with him and after he was born. He was trying to insure that Ken, my son, would "read the newspaper".


02/13/13 02:28 PM #5    

Diana Norris (Loomis) (1967)

Jack Knapp shared much of himself with my husband Warren Loomis and me, Diana (Norris) Loomis. We were both in  the class of 1967. When we married in 1971 there were few jobs and Warren could be drafted at any time for Viet Nam. We also had 13 years of debt  each for our seemingly unuseable batchelor degrees. We felt fortunate to find a small first apartment in Pomona for $90 a month and we stretched casseroles to budget $5 per week for food. I don't know how Jack knew and maybe he didn't, but his "house-warming" gift to us was a surprise visit and a grocery bag full of delicious food items he thoughtfully put together! He also invited us to his home on Towne Ave a number of times and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know his family. We still remark from time to time what a special memory he is. He will always be greatly missed. Lovingly, Diana Loomis  P.S.  I love the story about  Ben Harper's song in tribute to Jack. He is the Chase's (*Folk Music Center) grandson I believe.


02/19/13 01:50 PM #6    

Katie (Catherine) Girardot (1969)

Mr Knapp made Government palatable and in fact started me on a journey that gave me a thirst for the Constitution.  I remember that I was so petrified to give an oral speech and I shared that with him.  He talked to me calmly and I was able to proceed.  Not the most eloquent speech but certainly better that it would have been otherwise.  


06/03/13 05:15 PM #7    

Mary Michelle Hill (Cohn) (1975)

Mr. Jack Knapp was a educator who stands out in your mind as one of those great teachers who mark one's life with indellible influence. I had him one summer for government and would often begin an essay with the catchy hmmmm. One day I was walking on Harrison Avenue and Mr. Knapp pulled up, said hi and told me that he had a cartoon he clipped from the newspaper that reminded him of me that he'd been driving around with. It was a reference to Richard Nixon's tape with the hmmmm coming out of the tape recorder ( the missing minutes, hmmmmm). Anyway, how did he do that?

What an amazingly awesome teacher. i am sad to hear of his passing and hope that every student has their very own Jack Knapp. 

Michelle Hill Cohn, Class of 1975


06/04/13 09:59 AM #8    

Allan Preston (1961)

I was a very poor student and did not connect well with many teachers or subject-matter at Claremont Senior High School! That was until I met Mr. Jack Knapp.  He kindled my interest in history that continues to this day!  He was not impressed by family-backround, nor wealth a student carried with him or her when enetering his class!

He saw a new student as a sculpter would a mound of clay. It was his task to mould the oftentimes unweildy youngster in a caring, knowlledable person capable of becoming an asset to the social fabric of the United States of America! He often faced a daunting task since many of the students of that day came from vastly diifferent socio-economic backrounds!

His evenly-tempered personality was ideally adopted to make a difference in those students lives that didn't 'give a damn'.  In my case, he slowly broke down my hostile and fearful personality and gave me hope for the future!  He instilled in me a feeling that I could be successful in the existing hostile world of the fifties!

Few individuals over the years influenced me as much as Jack Knapp!  He instilled in me an understanding of my culture, Nation and even my future!

 

Thank you Mr. Jack Knapp for giving insight into the world far beyound my ability to see as an unruly teen-ager!

 

Allan Preston

 

 

    


06/05/13 07:01 PM #9    

Natanya Beth "Tanya" Wodinsky (1975)

I remember Mr. Knapp"s reminder notes. In the days before post-its, he would paper-clip a row of reminders to his tie and lapels. He was a kind soul.


06/07/13 04:24 PM #10    

Robert Moody (1961)

Jack Knapp was my mentor, teacher, friend, and coach. I was captain of the 1961 CHS golf team (Fred Rohrs was the best player, but I was captain mostly because Freddy was captain of every other CHS team) and Jack was our coach. We traveled all over together playing matches and practice rounds. Once Jack noticed I didn't have a driver, so he let me use his #2 wood and when it worked out well, he just gave it to me, leaving a hole in his set. Jack was forever giving to others, and his gifts were always individualized and helpful and perfect. He loved golf, but never allowed himself to play much, he was too busy helping others.

As a teacher, the first thing I would say about him is that I remember him on those cold winter mornings always wearing a sweater vest or a cardigan, he just made you feel at ease and welcome. But his mind was always vibrantly alive with serious thoughts on serious issues, and he had a way of drawing you in. We discussed the great issues of the day, both in class and on the road, or on the golf course or anyplace else we were. Jack, along with Marjorie Noble and Nick Polos, ignited my intellectual flame which has burned ever since. He invited us all to a lifetime love affair with learning, and I am so pleased to read that so many of his other students took him up on it - I sure did. Mrs. Noble simply demanded that we learn to express ourselves clearly, to learn how to absorb the written word, process it, and return it in the form of written thoughts and analyses. These skills have opened doors and permitted me to function throughout my entire lifetime. Nick Polos introduced me, through his History of Political Theory class, to the great Western political philosophers, and that study has fascinated me ever since. I took the same class in college, but it wasn't as sophisticated as Nick's was.

But it was Jack Knapp who brought it all together and sparked our curiosities, drew out our language skills, introduced us to our history, and applied it all to contemporary affairs. No other teacher or professor has ever had as profound an influence on me as Jack did, and I feel indescribably blessed to have had the privilege of being his student and friend.

Jack, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, and I'll look you up on the other side.

Bob Moody

 


06/14/13 12:52 PM #11    

Wayne Edward McNabb (1962)

Jack Knapp was my Don Quixote.  He made it his daily mission to dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to go where the brave dare not go, and to reach the unreachable star.  He set an example for me that I shall never forget, and it has guided my life these last 50 years. 

I was never much of a student, and history was never a subject that I could digest in any way.  I did read the assignments, but never really got much out of them.  I barely scraped by when there was a test, and Jack did his best to give me a passing grade.  He could always see more in me than I saw in myself.  One day he asked a quesion in class that I could actually answer.  He asked whos birthday is it today, I raised my hand and I think he was happy to call on me for an answer because I never really had one.  He was looking for me to say John F. Kennedy our current president, It was May 29th 1961.  But instead I answered it is my birthday Mr. Knapp.  He gave me a can of Orange Crush that day for my birthday and continued to send me an Orange Crush sign of some type for the rest of his life, with a note telling me that the president and he Jack and the same initials (JFK).  That really started our long lasting friendship.

When I was graduating Jack came to me and asked me what college I was planning on going to.  I said I was having some family problems, and was probably going to join the Navy.  He offered my his home.  He said I could come live with him if I decided to go to college.  I look back on that and think what an offer, he really didn't know me from adam, but he had faith in me.  I did join the service, and he wrote me the whole time I was gone.

When I came home I married a wonderful women who I am still married to.  Jack read about us in the paper and came to the house and gave us a present, and became my wifes friend also.  She loved him.  He brought posters he had made for  my two children and they spent time with him and his wife and their children.  He was like their uncle. 

He was always there for me in my times of need, all I had to do was call him.  He talked my wife and I into teaching, he spent hours helping us succeed in that pursuit, because we changed carreers late in life, and it was really hard for us to make the change.

He speaks to me all the time in my prayers, he is there for me always.  He does little things to let me know he is keeping his eye on me and I hope I am making him proud.  His big thing with me is to flip pages in books that I am reading to let me know what the important parts are. 

He lets me know that if I am true, that my heart too, will lie peaceful and calm when I am laid to my rest.

I love this man with all my heart, he has never left my side. 

Wayne Edward McNabb  


03/25/14 08:50 AM #12    

Gary Vallone (1968)

I am happy to read these comments about Mr. Jack Knapp- as he was a rare and special teacher. I dropped out of high school in 1968 and joined the Marine Corps. I received letters, cards, and cartoons from Jack Knapp from boot camp through my tour of duty in VietNam. I have been a teacher for 35 years- and the memory of Jack Knapp has always been a guiding hand through out my teaching career. I met up with Mr. Knapp around 1998- when in order to make extra money I was hired at Mt. San Antonio Gardens as a security guard. It was my fortune to drive around in the security cart with Mr. Knapp as we nightly pulled the security patrol together. God Bless you sir- you were a man of rare caliber...

PS- My last report card in high school was F,F,F,F, D-    Yep, Mr. Knapp refused to give me an F. Consequently, in my 35 years of teaching... I have never given a student an F.


03/27/14 07:35 AM #13    

Ford Bauman (1965)

Thank you for all the fond memories of Jack Knapp.  I'll never forget being bombarded with Sees Candy suckers

that would bounce off the back wall and land on my head whenever I said something really stupid which was often.

Ford Bauman

Class of 1965


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