James Knauss

Jim died Monday, November 2, at Pendleton Manor in Greenville, SC. He was born in Kalamazoo, MI, on December 1, 1927, to the late James O. and Adelaide Knauss. He graduated with honors in 1945 from Western State High School, having participated in ballroom dancing, baseball, choir, debate, golf, and the school newspaper. In 1949, Jim graduated from Western Michigan University with a B.S. in chemistry. He continued his studies at University of Michigan's Rackham Graduate School. Soon after, he started work at DAP (Dicks-Armstrong-Pontius), later moving to Roberts Consolidated Industries and eventually finished his career at USG in Dayton, OH. In 1953, Jim married Harriet Corwin, who over the course of her lifetime was an employee at the Upjohn Company, a teacher, high school librarian, and a donor and volunteer at Kalamazoo and Dayton arts organizations. Together, Jim and Harriet raised two children, Eric (born 1955) and Carol (born 1958). Jim was with Harriet when she died in 2004. Jim played competitive bridge for nearly thirty years, earning the title of Life Master. He also enthusiastically engaged in many other hobbies: playing golf, listening to jazz, reading, and watching live theater, operettas and musicals. He was an empathetic ear to many of Eric and Carol's teenage and young adult friends. He maintained a few of those relationships until shortly before the end of his life. Jim leaves behind a world that is better for his having lived, but he will be missed, especially, by his son Eric and his wife Pam in Greenville, SC and grandson Oisin in Lakewood, CO; and his daughter Carol and her husband Charlie in Plymouth, MI and their sons Corwin (and his wife Irene) in Redwood City, CA and Elliot in Plymouth, MI. Jim's memorial website, jamessknauss1927.com welcomes friends and family to visit and share memories. In lieu of a memorial service, the family asks friends to take a moment to sit back and enjoy their favorite drinks (alcohol or not) and music (jazz or not) and think of Jim listening to the Modern Jazz Quartet sipping a Bombay Sapphire martini, up, with two anchovy stuffed olives. In accordance with Jim's wishes, his body will be donated for medical research to the Medical University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. There are so many people and organizations that gave Jim great joy and helped him to nearly reach his 93rd birthday, so, if you wish to donate to a charity in his honor, pick one that you like, and give. Or not.