It
’s easier for major contributors to stand out in small towns
than in large ones – the big frog/small pond syndrome. Roger Knopf
would be a big frog, no matter what size the pond.
It’s easier for major contributors to stand out in small towns than in large ones – the big frog/small pond syndrome. Roger Knopf would be a big frog, no matter what size the pond.
Saturday night at a black tie affair at CordeValle Country Club, Leadership Morgan Hill will present Knopf with the 2003 Leadership Excellence Award, a tribute to his decades of service – and leadership – to the many levels of his community.
A deeply committed volunteer for more than 30 years, Knopf and his resumé range from Rotary to healthcare, stopping many times along the way at schools, police, city commissions and foundations and the Historical Society. Why does this man whose profession is building structures, spend so much time building his community?
“It’s fun,” Knopf said Saturday while sitting in the dining room of The Hiram Morgan Hill House at Villa Mira Monte, one of his pet projects. “It’s challenging.”
There is no simple answer to what makes a leader.
“Everyone is different. In my case I developed an interest in my community from growing up in a small community – me in Los Gatos and Janie (his wife of 39 years) in Saratoga. If you get involved in one thing there is more involvement by the whole community and it’s stronger. Otherwise it’s just a place where people live.”
“Probably on a per-capita basis, Morgan Hill may have more volunteers than larger communities,” he said.
Knopf said he believes in less government and finds a vibrant volunteer force is a way to avoid that.
“If the people are less able or don’t have the time, government employees pick up the work and they can turn into people who know how to do it better than the person they are doing it for,” he said. “If they do a job day after day they can turn into bureaucrats.”
He equates a strong volunteering force with a strong community. And Knopf has been instrumental in turning Morgan Hill into a strong community. His long-time friend Steve Tate, city councilman and fellow Rotarian, described Knopf when the Leadership award was announced.
“Roger Knopf embodies every characteristic of a good leader,” Tate said. “He’s benevolent, wise, driven and a great communicator. But first and foremost, he inspires others to lead. For that alone he was a unanimous choice to receive this inaugural award.”
Tate said Knopf was chosen for the award because of his tireless efforts in advancing, and in many cases launching, wide-reaching community institutions, foundations and businesses.
Leadership Morgan Hill, a function of the Chamber of Commerce, in 1995 started training future leaders to serve by educating them in the various facets of the community, including city government, law enforcement, education, healthcare and non-profits. The group’s citation of Knopf read as follows:
“The Leadership Excellence Award was established to recognize an individual or individuals whose vision and leadership advance the spirit of community and charity; reflect courage and insight and inspire others to lead in a like manner. The award may cite a singular outstanding moment that manifests clear and defined leadership skills or it may memorialize a prolonged tenure of continuous and meritorious leadership activities – as is the case with Roger Knopf.”
The award’s dinner, while highlighting Knopf’s acheivements with an entire DVD of interviews with friends, family and fellow workers, is also a fundraiser for the Morgan Hill Community Foundation, one of Roger’s latest endeavors.
THE VOLUNTEER LIFE
Knopf said his entree into local volunteering actually started when “my own ox was gored.”
While he was farming property on Llagas Creek the county talked about developing a creekside trail system.
“A trail between the homes and the creek would be very disruptive,” he said. “In the process of getting involved and getting options I was invited to serve on the steering committee for the PL566 project.”
PL566 is a 50-year-old county/federal government project to improve the length of Llagas Creek from south of Gilroy to north of Morgan Hill. The Morgan Hill part still awaits federal funding.
“Janie, of course, was always involved in the schools and then I got involved.”
From there it was on to Rotary, hospital and bank boards, school bond campaigns, city commissions and, most recently as a founding director of the Morgan Hill Community Foundation. The MHCF was established in 2002 to serve as a local conduit for funds to selected and worthy community projects.
Why Knopf joined several hospital and bank boards is not a mystery.
“They asked me,” he said. “These are all things I didn’t seek. I think I’ve made a contribution but no more than anybody else.”
He got involved with the Historical Society, again because Janie was heavily involved.
“There were little projects that needed attention,” Roger said. “Now we are working with the city to get the museum and a little farmhouse moved onto the Villa Mira Monte property.”
He was instrumental, along with attorney Scott vanKeulen, in clearing up a lengthy, complicated legal entanglement between the society and the Lion’s Eye Foundation over the Morgan Hill House.
“These things take a little time,” he said, “but it (the society) is a very efficient operation from an economic standpoint. The alternative (to the society owning and operating the city’s signature house) is that the city would still own this and be paying for it.”
Both Knopfs said they are looking forward to Morgan Hill’s centennial year, beginning November 2005 and running to November 2006.
Roger said he never ran for political office, largely because he believes in volunteerism.
“You’ll have more of an effect that way,” he said.
HISTORICAL ROGER
In many ways, Knopf’s background is little different from that of most people but there were early signs of quiet leadership and – importantly – personal determination.
Knopf was raised on a 13-acre family plot in the Los Gatos hills where he and his brother learned to help out at an early age.
“His dad (Bob) taught him the work ethic,” Janie said.
“I was out helping my dad clean up construction sites,” Roger said, “when I was too short to see into the wheelbarrow.”
The family had horses and livestock and Roger and his siblings (he also had a sister) spent time hunting, hiking, camping and raising lambs and steers to show at the Santa Clara County Fair. Not surprisingly, Roger was a Boy Scout, 4-H member and a Future Farmer of America.
Roger said he learned by watching both his parents, Bob, whom he describes as an “expediter” who kept things in order and now a year-round gardener and his mother Doddie (Georgianna), a community volunteer herself.
“Mom was always involved – as a den mother, in school activities, book sales at the library, the AAUW Wildflower Run, the P.A. Walsh after school reading program – she’s worked for the Red Cross (blood drives) since 1942.”
Roger and Janie met while at Los Gatos High School where, Janie said, they went around in a pack but didn’t really date each other.
“We started dating in college,” she said. They both attended San Jose State University (San Jose State at the time), Roger studying business management and Janie, art, though Roger left a bit before graduating to work with a general engineering contractor and enter the Naval Reserves. Roger trained to as a reciprocating engine mechanic and a “Julie” operator (a piece of anti-submarine warfare gear used on ASW Patrol Planes). He spent his reserve years at N.A.S. Alameda, flying as an air crewman on a SP-2E Patrol plane, as a flight engineer. He left the Navy in 1969 as a Petty Officer First Class.
The couple married in 1964, moved to Morgan Hill to farm prunes on the Knopf family property off Watsonville Road and near Llagas Creek.
“Morgan Hill had about 4,000 people then,” Roger said.
By 1970 the couple had bought 15 acres of the family land and subdivided it, making their own street and effectively returning Roger to the building business. And there they have stayed, in a joint project (Knopf Construction) with Roger acting as contractor. Janie designs the interiors.
After 39 years of marriage Roger and Janie have collected two children – daughter Carrie, a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital who is engaged to be married – and David a homicide detective with the San Jose Police Department.
David and his wife, Gina, have produced three grandchildren, Alexandra, age 6 and 4-year-old twins, Gianna and Christopher. Roger said being a grandparent is not the same as being a parent.
“It gives Janie something to do,” he joked. “Actually it’s great, and with the three living just around the corner, it’s always humming around the house.”
Roger said he doesn’t have time for hobbies since he’s too busy with work, community and family but he does find time to run. In the summer of 2002, only two-and-a-half years after he first laced up a pair of running shoes, Roger finished the Las Vegas marathon, running the 26.2-mile route in 4:24 hours, not bad for a 62-year-old guy.
“I like to ski too but don’t have much time,” he said. He earned a private pilot’s license but couldn’t find the time to fly.
WHAT’S NEXT
“People have plans for me,” he said. Tate enlisted his help with a campaign to making a new Morgan Hill Public Library building happen. Stay tuned for the Roger Knopf whirlwind.
Tickets to the dinner and fundraiser are no longer available. Details on the Morgan Hill Community Foundation at www.morganhillcommunityfoundation.org or 778-6409.
