Dr. Knowles DOUGHERTY

Oh my goodness this is such sad news. I'm so very happy, as a former Warehouse student, to have had the opportunity to see him this Summer. That year at Warehouse was the happiest of my life. Knowles changed my life.

Thanks, Knowles. From a Warehouse School grad. Don White

I recently found a collection of Cross Country Journals and proceeded to look for information about this very well done publication. Sadly I learned of Knowles passing. I had written a few articles for the Journal and had spoken with him over the years. It was an honor to know him and I am very appreciative of his contribution to the wonderful sport of cross-country Rod O'Donnell Belpre, Ohio

He was my Spanish and math teacher in high school and a wonderful person. I learned so much from him. I always admired the person he was. I am so sorry to hear that he passed away.

Thank you Knowles for making the world a better, smarter and more interesting place .

Well,my memories of Knowles start at Austin HS math classes of Ma Black, where my twin Floyd and I were "the apple of the teacher's eye". Knowles and Russ Wangen were always friendly and perhaps a little amused by us farm-boys. [Actually our connections to Dougherty's go back to 1940 when our parents borrowed money from his uncle Park Dougherty's 1st National Bank to buy the 200 acre farm at Dexter! But we boys didn't know that until later.] And Floyd and I had no contact with AHS friends outside of class.

After AHS years, somehow we stayed in contact well enough to know about Knowles working with the American Friends Service Committee [Quakers] in El Salvador, and enough contact with his parents to hear them tell about spending some time [when?] in Turkey hosting foreign visitors [Quaker visitors?].

Knowles and Darlene attended Sally's and my wedding on 27Dec1964 in Rockford IL and I recall feeling frustrated that I was kept too busy to chat with them... Then they got married themselves in 1965.

We two and our 2 children stayed with Knowles and Darlene, Jimmy and Elizabeth in their Missouri home, twice: First was a Thanksgiving weekend trip from Chicago in 1975 or 1976, and I remember our daughter Kari, about 7, helping Elizabeth find and collect the eggs. Second was an overnight waystop for us four on our big move from Oak Park IL to CA in Feb1984.

And after that, while Knowles had his print shop on Main Street in Austin, whenever Sally and I visited from either Madison WI [1992-2002] or CA [2002 to date], we enjoyed an evening together at the Wangen's: Knowles, Norma and Russ, Sally and I, and Joann and Harry Stevens. You can imagine the conversations!

We two met Knowles and Floyd once [say 2003] near Pasadena for a contradance, plus conversation.

Sally and I stayed overnight with Knowles at his home not far from the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in 2003, and similarly with Knowles and Andre, at her home, in 2011.

Our surviving emails over the years show our mutual interest in nutrition, and improving the system of public education, and more ...

Most recently, on 9Aug2016 at Shirley Biewen's, Knowles and Andre were most admirably able to join Shirley, Floyd and Carol Marquez-Olson, and Sally and me for lunch and conversation. When I asked for more information about his dad [Richard D.] and his uncle Park D., Knowles told us the inside scoop on SPAM, which we were not able to learn at the newest SPAM Museum just days earlier: Namely, Jay Hormel and Park D. knew and respected each other from years of playing bridge together. So in the early days of WWII [like 1939] when a canned meat was needed by the Allied military so they would never be without food, Jay called on Park to head up the SPAM historic effort or program; and the rest is history, to put it mildly.
Perhaps this historical background is in Richard D.'s 1966 book about the first 75 years of Hormel's. Richard also edited and published The Squeal which came out once a month for many years.