- Born on: June 11, 1926
- Departed on: February 27, 2022
- Resided in: Monticello, IA
Jack P. Knopp
Jack P. Knopp died at age 95 on 27, February, 2022, in Monticello, Iowa. He was the son of Jacob (Jack) Knopp and Muriel (Shaw) Knopp of Burlington, Iowa. When Jack was eight years old (1934), his father died of quinsy; two years later, his mother married Ray F. Wickhart, who became Jack's loved step-father.
Jack enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1944, after graduation from Burlington High School; he was trained as a tail-gunner, but did not deploy in that role because of V-E Day. Instead, he was sent to Germany as part of the post-war occupation. In 1946, he returned to Burlington and enrolled in the Burlington Junior College.
In 1948 he married Jeanne L. Zerneke of Burlington; they moved to Des Moines, where Jack worked as a salesman while enrolled in Drake University, majoring in Marketing. After graduating in 1950, he continued selling in the Des Moines area until 1953, when he took a job with the Chevrolet Motor Division as the manager of district five in the new Peoria zone. They moved to Clinton.
In 1957, Jack was offered a promotion that would have moved them to Moberly, Missouri. Knowing that General Motors often moved its rising executives, Jack chose instead to open a car dealership in Monticello, offering Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. For twenty-eight years, K & P Chevrolet-Olds Co. was a part of Monticello's retail community, picking up the American Motors franchise in 1969. During that time, Jack was a Rotarian, supported the Boy Scouts of Troop 66, travelled with Friendship Force International and served a term on the school board.
After K & P closed, Jack found that selling jewelry at K's Merchandise was much easier than being the Big Cheese of his own business. As the commute began to pall, he drifted into real estate appraisal and was licensed for both residential and commercial appraisals. In his 80s, he finally tried real retirement for the last ten years of his life.
He is survived by his wife Jeanne and their son K.R., married to Jan Cratsenberg. The current theory is that Jack, a life-long bridge player, was called to complete a fourth.
