Ronald Edward Knapel

1919 - 2010

BORN

1919

DIED

2010

About

Ohio State University

Ronald Knapel Obituary

San Mateo, CA

Ronald Edward Knapel

Jan. 1, 1919 - July 18, 2010

Ronald E. Knapel resident of San Mateo, passed away on July 18, 2010 at the age of 91. Ronald was

born in Shaker Heights, OH, received a BS from Ohio State University, a JD from John Marshall Law School in Ohio and spent 48 years with Travelers Insurance Co. He was past President of the San Francisco Claims Managers' Assoc., and the Inter Company Arbitration Group. After retirement, he worked for the Larsen & Burnham Law Firm in Oakland. His wife of 35 years, Jeanne C. Knapel, preceded him in death in 1977.

He is survived by his wife, Jane Madren Knapel; sons Ronald, Jr. and Bob Knapel both of San Jose; daughters Jeanne Lobo of Discovery Bay, Ruth Segarini of Stockton and Carol Marcott Johnson of Boise, ID.; six grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.

Contributions to the Leukemia & Lymphona Society or the American Cancer Society; 747 Camden Ave., Suite B, Campbell, CA 95008 Attn: Allison Knapel.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Record on Jul. 29, 2010.

Memories and Condolences
for Ronald Knapel

6 Entries

Ronald Knapel Sr. with family

Rick Lobo

July 30, 2010

Michelle Medina

July 28, 2010

Pop words cannot express what an amzing man you were, and what an impact you made on all our lives. You humor and your whits were unmatchable up until your very last days. You were the most selfless person I know, and never wanted anyone to inconvenience themselves for you. I am so glad I was able to see you last month and you were able to see your great grandaughter and meet your great grandson. They will always know what an amazing man you were and how much you mean to this family. We will miss you dearly but know you are in a better place, I know you will forever be watching over us. You may be gone but you will never be forgotten. I am so proud of the man you were and proud to have you as my grandfather. We love you always, Michelle, Johnnie, Kylie, & Aidan.

Ruth & Ron Segarini

July 27, 2010

Dad, we will miss you so very much. We really enjoyed our visits with you. As sick as you were, you always entertained us with your quick humor and games you saved from the newspaper ,etc. You never let on how much pain you were in. You were always teaching us something even up to the end, when you taught us how to die with such courage and dignity. We love you so much and will hold you in our hearts forever. Love you always and forever. Ruthie & Ron

July 27, 2010

Dad,
I still cannot believe you are gone because you were always a major presence in my life.I will miss you deeply but will always feel your presence. Dad I really love you. You were a great example of how to live yor life to the fullest and yet with great balance. You meant an awful lot to Michael and Michelle and I quote to them daily to live by your example, as you also showed me. I will still always be a Arnold Palmer fan instead of Jack Nicholas but I will miss our rivalry over them. Rich thought the best of you also.
Miss you Dad,
your loving daughter, Carol

Ronald Knapel, Jr

July 26, 2010

I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with Dad the last few years. We often talked about this day coming. Dad was a realist and he knew his time here on this earth was finite and his time to leave would be soon. Near the end he asked me if I would say something nice about him at his memorial if he decided to have one. I told him I would be glad to and to just tell me what he wanted me to say. He said, “well why don’t we put our heads together and come up with something nice to say about me“? I said sure and we both looked at each other and started thinking. Well after a few awkward moments of silence, he looked at me with that wry smile of his and a glint in his eye and said, “Oh just make something up”!! Dad had his sense of humor until the very end. One of the things I remember most regarding these conversations was that he did not want us to mourn him. He always told me that when his day came he did not want tears for him but to try and remember the good times we all shared with him. For most of us who knew him well, we have many of those good memories. He said that he had a wonderful life. He said he had it all and had no real regrets and could accept his mortality. Dad said he was blessed by 5 children, 6 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren, a good life with our mother, Jeanne Claire, until her passing at the young age of 56, an unfortunately short marriage , to our mother’s sister, Dolly, who died at age 59, and a long, loving and caring marriage to Jane for the past 27 years.

Dad was born 91 years ago, on January 1, 1919 in the City of Cleveland, Ohio. He was an only child. His mother was an entrepreneur. She at one time owned a bakery and later a diaper pick up and cleaning service. His dad was a mechanic and later worked for the city of Cleveland, managing their car repair shop.
Dad was raised by his parents and many aunts and uncles too. They lived in a large three story house that belonged to his grandfather Jakob on his mom’s side. His grandfather was a funeral director and they actually had viewings in their home when the mortuary nearby was closed at one point for remodeling. Dad’s mom was a great cook and Dad’s grandfather used to do a lot of entertaining of local dignitaries in this large old house where they would feast on Dad’s mom’s great cooking including her famous apple strudel.

Dad proudly took after his mom’s entrepreneurial nature. Just like in an old “Our Gang” serial, when he was 12 or 13 he and a friend set up one of the first miniature golf courses in Cleveland. There was a vacant lot next to their old house and Dad cleared the land without the owners permission and set up their miniature golf course where they would charge the neighbor kids 25 cents to play. This lasted all summer until the owner discovered what was going on and promptly closed the enterprise down.
Dad went to the Cathedral of Latin School as a youngster where he developed a lifetime love of sports. Dad was a city junior champion in tennis and his prize was to volley around with National Champion at the time, Bill Tilden. Dad said Tilden’s serve was like a rocket! In high school Dad continued to excel in tennis.

But, Dad wasn’t all sports in high school. One time while his parents and aunts were out of town he was talked into having a huge weekend party right before graduation. I was told it was a scene right out of the movie Risky Business or Animal House. He even had a bar tender. His parents came home unexpectedly late at 4 am to find liquor bottles all over the place, kids passed out in the bathtub and Dad in the middle of it all. Dad never had another party and he said he and his parents never spoke again of the incident.

After high school, Dad went on to Ohio State University where he told me these were some of the best years of his life. At Ohio State Dad continued to play tennis. He once played a fellow who later went on to become the national amateur champion. Dad lost but did win one out of three games. At Ohio State former alumnus and Olympic track star Jessie Owen was visiting and expressed an interest in trying out tennis. The coach asked Dad to volley around with Jessie. After a few minutes of volleying around with Dad, Jessie put his racket down and rumor has it that he never picked up a racket again.

In 1942 Dad graduated with a Business degree and Dad married our mother, Jeanne Claire Kossick He later went to the John Marshall Law School at night. My sisters Jeanne and Ruth were soon born and they all moved to Stockton, California when Dad got a job with Traveler’s Insurance Company to be in a better climate for my mom’s health. Carol, I and Bob came later. He spent about 15 years in Stockton before the summer of 1965. He got transferred to the San Jose office of Travelers where he would be the claims manager of the Northwestern United States and Hawaii. I could not appreciate what he had to go through that summer until much later as an adult. That summer Jeanne and Ruth both had the audacity to each get married and have big weddings ; we sold our house and moved our household to San Jose and Dad took his new position with Travelers. Wow, talk about expenses and changes but somehow he made it through it all.

Dad spent 48 years with Travelers as a claims manager. After Travelers he didn’t really want to retire so he worked with Jane as a Mediator with the San Mateo County Courts and they even received an award for their efforts. The last ten years he worked part-time with the Larson & Burnham Law firm mentoring attorneys on claims matters. Jane and Dad during these years were able to do quite a bit of traveling around the world

Between college and law school Dad was drafted into the army during WWII. Because he was legally blind in his left eye he was kept stateside. His athleticism served him well during these years. He was sought after and played softball for his camp team where he was a good pitcher and hitter. He was sort of a ringer and one Major from another team who saw him play was able to have Dad transferred to his team for the title game. Dad in his big game walked three in a row to load the bases in the first inning. The Major with great consternation had the coach move Dad over to first base to keep him in the lineup because of his hitting abilities. Well as luck would have it, the next batter; the cleanup hitter, hit the first pitch, a shot right at Dad at first base. Well Dad booted it and it bounced away and 3 runs scored. Dad had a chance to redeem himself when he came to bat the first time with the bases loaded and two out. Dad struck out on three pitches. Within a half a hour Dad was on the next train to his new camp.

Dad liked to joke about his few brushes with celebrities in his life. When he was young he used to hop a train just like a hobo and ride it out for about an hour to the country club where he would caddy for around 75 cents a round. One time he caddied for Babe Ruth and also in the foursome were two of Notre Dame’s Football team’s famed Four Horsemen. Dad said the Babe could really hit the heck out of a golf ball just like a baseball. The fourth member of the foursome was a club member who dad remembers being a little tight with a buck. When the round was finished Babe Ruth offered my Dad nine dollars for the four of them to the caddies. The club member protested and told the Babe that he would take care of the caddies himself. The club member then proceeded to give each of the caddies 50 cents for their trouble. Dad said they later evened the score with the cheap club member but wouldn’t tell me what they did.

When dad was in college he made ends meet as soda jerk in a coffee shop where his boss and the owner, Jim Rhodes, later became Governor of Ohio. Dad said they used to have a father/son like relationship and he convinced Dad to go on to law school.

Once in Columbus, Dad was in a small local night club where he was in the rest room and struck up a conversation with the young singer in the band. They went out and had drinks after the show. The singer was Dino Crocetti, later known as Dean Martin.

After my sister Carol’s wedding in the early seventies a group of them all went to the Fairmont hotel to the Venetian Room when Dad who was dressed in a tuxedo because of the wedding had to use the restroom. When he came out into the hallway there was Tony Bennett who was performing there. He walked up to Dad and thinking he was part of the show because of the way he was dressed started chatting to him about show business and the hotel industry. This went on for a few minutes before Tony Bennett realized Dad, based on his total lack of knowledge of what Tony was talking about, was not who he thought he was and he politely excused himself and left Dad pronto.

Dad’s most recent brush with a celebrity was with Willie Mays. Mr. Mays unfortunately had a break in at his house in Atherton. Mr. Mays wasn’t happy with the adjuster assigned to the case so he ask to speak with his boss. Dad unfortunately didn’t make Mr. Mays any happier but I think Dad did get an autographed picture out of the deal.

I will always remember Dad as fun to be around. He had that quick wit and very dry sense of humor without offending others. He would poke fun at others but also at himself. This I learned from him was the key to his sense of humor. He always told me you aren’t mature unless you can laugh at yourself. One story dad told me recently was how he went out on a boat ride in the ocean with some friends at work. Dad who thought he was an capable boatman was kidding some of them about how they were going to get seasick. Well as luck would have it, he was the one who got seasick and when he started to turn green he quickly went down below an grabbed the first bag he saw and deposited his lunch. Unfortunately the bag contained his friends cigars. They never let him forget that incident.

Dad was a very confident person who was a very good listener and not a reactionary. I was always amazed on how he remembered details of conversations we had. He always had that very conservative advice that was looking at the possible downside. I believe this came from his years of being a claims manager.

I remember dad keeping in good shape. He was always active and not sedentary. People always thought he looked young. I remember once at St. Mary’s grammar school one of the nuns said she thought he was our brother not our father. I think she was just flirting with him.

I remember Dad attending all my little league, pony league, high school and college baseball games. When I was young he would practice with me and I treasure the times we would just play catch and talk about stuff. He would go to mine and Bob’s basketball games on Saturday’s. I now know how much time and effort he put in to us. I remember playing golf with him when I was young and thought that was the greatest thing. I can still very vividly remember the first time I beat him in ping pong. I was 14 and it was sort of a right of passage.

I remember one time when I was going on a snow trip with our coach of the basketball team. This was my first time to the snow and I was so excited. I was supposed to get up at 4:30 am to get ready for the trip. I was to wake him up so he could drive me to the 6 am mass that I was suppose to meet up with the team. I set two wind up alarm clocks so I would be sure to wake up. Well of course the alarms went off I turned them off only to rest a second and I promptly fell back asleep. Dad a few minutes later was there in my room to wake me up and get me to the mass in time for me to be the altar boy. He never let me down.

Dad had a great love for Ohio State University and any thing OSU like Wood Hayes, Jack Nicklaus and others. I really cherish all the Big Games, Rose Bowls, and golf tournaments we use to watched together on TV.

Dad had a great fondness of animals especially his pet dogs and cat. He used to enjoy training our family dogs, something that has rubbed off on me. He was able to train his and Jane’s cat, Dr. Jeckel. to respond to finger commands which obviously took quite a bit of patience.

Patience is something dad had with all of us. He allowed us all to grow in our own ways without stifling us. He gave us just enough freedom to expand but not get too hurt. . I remember sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night in high school on occasion thinking I was putting one over on him only to find out years later he knew but was allowing me to find my own way. I can remember when Bob had really long hair in high school. He didn’t like it but he let him have it anyway because it was important to Bob.
I can remember many times taking out our family boat that he named the Jerobacaru using each of our initials. We would go on boat rides down the channel in Stockton and go for picnics along the shore. He would love to go out at night and stop off at little dockside bars with friends of the family.
In addition to being a good athlete when he was young he once bowled in league competition a 267 where he had 9 strikes in a row. Dad was also very good at working with his hands. I learned a lot just watching him do things. He built cabinets for the garage and did a great job. except for the fact that he almost cut off Carol’s finger who was holding a piece of wood he was cutting. I still have and use some of his old simple hand tools. I cherish them every time I put them in my hands. It is as though I am touching him .

Dad in his last 27 years was very fortunate to have found Jane. They, especially in the earlier years, traveled to many exotic places around the world. They use to enjoy tennis together and going for long walks. Dad and Jane being both very intelligent use to enjoy challenging each other on almost any topic. They both did mediation work for the San Mateo Superior Courts where they won awards for their work. In the later years Jane’s profession as a nurse became very helpful to Dad helping him decipher and cope with the various treatments he would go through and always taking great loving care of him. He used to tell me he would have been lost without her.

Dad, you were always the best of fathers and were always there for us. I am so grateful for the time I had with you the past few years and will treasure that time forever. I will try hard to be the man you were and to be the husband to Gloria and father to Allison and Jennifer that you showed me by example to be. I will miss you greatly.
I love you, Ron

Kathleen Haley

July 26, 2010

Mr. Knapel hired me at the Travelers back in 1977. He was a wonderful boss and set a very high standard, which makes me still proud to be working for Travelers. I am sorry for your loss. My prayers are with your family. Fondly,

Showing 1 - 6 of 6 results