Southeast Missourian leader, public servant passes

Education and civics in Southeast Missouri lost an advocate when Joseph Victor (Joe) Knodell, 78, died Sunday, March 3.

Education, his community, family and faith were the driving forces in Knodell’s life. Born Dec. 1, 1945, in Poplar Bluff to Victor and Fannie Knodell, he grew up in Wappapello and graduated from Fisk-Rombauer High School, Arkansas State University and Southeast Missouri State University.

Knodell had a long and distinguished career in public education, serving as a teacher, principal and superintendent of schools in the East Carter and Twin Rivers school districts. He served three terms as an elected member of the Three Rivers College Board of Trustees and was appointed by Gov. Matt Blunt to serve on the Missouri State Board of Probation and Parole. He lived many years in Ellsinore and Poplar Bluff before relocating to Creve Coeur in 2018.

Among the noteworthy events of his time as Twin Rivers R-X superintendent, Knodell was interviewed in 1992 about the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirming its 30-year-old ban on officially sponsored worship in public schools by prohibiting prayers at graduation ceremonies.

Knodell explained he talked with Missouri School Board Association legal representatives with questions about how the ruling will be interpreted. Personally, he did not want to see the school change its procedure. At the time, a prayer was held at Twin Rivers’ commencement but not at athletic events.

He said the Twin Rivers’ community was “generally supportive of prayer. But we will comply with the law, whatever it is.”

After retiring from his education career, Knodell served the city of Poplar Bluff as planner, interim director of the Black River Coliseum, community developer and grants coordinator.

Knodell sought his city planner job in May 2001, thinking it would be a different kind of challenge.

“It’s not like some jobs where you come to work every day and do the same thing,” he told a DAR reporter. “Rather than looking for ways to better educate kids I now look for ways to better community and development issues. There are a lot of similarities (between the two jobs), but the goals and objective are different.”

Being city planner was a learning experience, he said. The biggest lesson was how businesses in a city this size functions, and all the rules and regulations they had to comply with.

“It’s very different from being a school superintendent,” he said. “I enjoy working with the government entities we have to deal with. As with any job, I would like to see things accomplished quicker. Things move at a pace slower than I would like. But we’re going in the right direction with our city council and our city employees.

“Once we solve some of our problems with regard to growth, the sky is the limit for Poplar Bluff. We’re in a regional trade area with a large potential for commercial development. These are exciting times to be living in Poplar Bluff.”

Former Poplar Bluff City Manager Mark Massingham said, “I worked around five years with Joe Knodell at city hall. He was always dedicated to his position and for the betterment of Poplar Bluff. He was a very nice person to work with, a good man who loved his family and his community. He will be missed by many people. Prayers are with his family.”

Knodell also served as Butler County Emergency Management Director.

Poplar Bluff attorney Mark L. Richardson, a former minority leader in the Missouri House of Representatives, assistant prosecuting attorney and circuit judge, said Knodell, “had a long and illustrious and well-respected career in public education, serving multiple school districts. Then he retired from that and he spent several years on the board of trustees at the college. Then he actually lobbied for public education in Jefferson City after he was completely retired from his first career.”

Richardson recalled he was, “so highly revered, highly respected, very, very knowledgeable. Many of his peers looked to him for leadership and an encouragement. He was a very optimistic person. He believed in children. He was committed to the education of our children, both at the public school system during his original professional career, also during his tenure as a trustee at Three Rivers College, and he continued that after he retired in Jefferson City, advocating for school choice and for excellence in education.”

As an individual, he was the kind of person people always respected, revered and wanted to emulate, Richardson said.

“His life was as pure and as reverent and as selfless as any individual I’ve ever known in my life,” Richardson said. “He truly loved Poplar Bluff and Southeast Missouri, and everything that he ever attempted and accomplished was for the improvement the betterment of our region.”

His family wrote Knodell was “a man of deep and abiding Christian faith, (who) was an ordained Baptist deacon, and attended Westwood Baptist Church. He loved southern gospel music, singing in groups with his family in his younger days, and later singing in numerous gospel quartets, most recently with the Gloryland Quartet of Paragould, Arkansas. He treasured the opportunity to spend time in the outdoors, and especially duck hunting and golfing. Joe truly enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren and seeing those students he had educated succeed in their lives.”

He is survived by his wife, Donna Kingen Knodell of Creve Coeur, his son, Robert (Mandy) Knodell of Holts Summit, Missouri, and his daughter, Kristi (Brian) Gilmore of Allen, Texas. He is survived by four grandchildren, Lauren Gilmore, Ashton Gilmore and Caden Gilmore, all of Allen, Texas, and Sally Knodell of Holts Summit, Missouri; one sister-in-law, Barbara Kingen Alcorn of Poplar Bluff; and before his passing he looked forward to welcoming his first great-grandchild, Carson Joseph Gilmore, this summer. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

Visitation was Wednesday at Cotrell Willow Ridge Funeral & Cremation Services and the funeral will be held 11 a.m. Thursday at Westwood Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff.