Wayne Knight

1940 - 2025

Dr. Knight was a full-time history professor at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College for 40 years, and by all accounts was an excellent lecturer and compelling storyteller who was very well-liked by many, many students. He was justly proud of the PhD in history he earned from American University in 1979. His dissertation was on the post-World War II breakdown of the alliance among the UK, the US, and the USSR, which led to the Cold War. At Reynolds he particularly enjoyed teaching "The United States Since 1945," a course he created.

Dr. Knight grew up mostly in Warrensburg, NY, where his family owned and operated Stone's Self-Service, a medium-sized general store. He moved to the Chicago area as a teenager and attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. There he was in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, and after graduating in 1963 he served as an active-duty Navy officer for two years in the Mediterranean. His experiences there colored the rest of his life; he frequently peppered his lectures and conversations with Navy stories and lingo. Later, he worked as a journalist and lived in Washington, DC-a city he felt strongly connected to and at home in-for graduate school. His position at Reynolds prompted his move to Richmond with his former wife, Christine Knight, and their infant son in 1974.

He disliked formality, especially the kind that might require him to remove his ever-present hat. He loved baseball, tennis with his friend and colleague Mark Plume, country music, visiting Europe, his dogs, good beer, a hearty tomato sauce, and above all, his sons and his adored wife and partner of nearly four decades, Vicki Bruce.

As a fitting coda to a life dedicated to education, he donated his body to medical science via the Virginia State Anatomical Program. There will not be a service of any kind. The family instead suggests contributing in his honor to the Stuart B. Medlin Liberal Arts Scholarship at Reynolds.

He was an amazing and remarkable husband, survived by his wife Vicki, and he was a great dad to his sons Dean of Richmond, and Peter of Silver Spring, MD. He is also survived by his sister Cathy Staat of Fox Point, WI, his half-sister Darlene Knight Rogers of Las Vegas, NV, and stepsons Jeff and Chris Anderson of Richmond.