A life of service: Remembering Rev. Vernon Kneir's enduring legacy in ministry and community

Rev. Vernon Mitchell Kneir, 93, who died Thursday, Feb. 13, in his Poplar Bluff home, is remembered as a well-respected minister who was able to transcend ages, had a quick wit and married a lot of couples.

Kneir’s daughter Pam Sharp and her husband, Brian Sharp, recall numerous things about her father who was a Methodist pastor for most of his life.

Kneir was mentor to many who went into the ministry, shared Brian Sharp adding, “I am one of them.”

A founding member of the United Gospel Rescue Mission, Kneir also served as the president of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce in 1976.

He served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany during the Korean war where he was a chaplain and achieved the rank of staff sergeant.

When he returned home to Poplar Bluff, Kneir met the love of his life, Peggy Lou Ramsey, and they married Oct. 31, 1953. He attended Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Brian Sharp explained, Kneir was a carpenter, like Jesus, and used his ministry skills as well as carpentry to build churches.

Kneir pastored Greentop, Puxico, and Grace and Good Hope United Methodist churches. He pastored the Poplar Bluff congregations for 33 years.

Pam Sharp recalls, her father used his carpentry skills in building Grace United Methodist Church and the parsonage. Using his talents of carpentry and ministry, he also served on mission teams to Chile and Peru.

Brian Sharp said, Kneir played a role in the construction of Grace Christian Fellowship, where he was a charter member and where the Sharps serve as pastors.

Recalling a young man’s cell phone going off during one of her dad’s services, Pam Sharp remembers her father saying, “If that isn’t God, I would not answer it. Dad had a rapport and got along with others and people had faith in him.”

The family said Kneir loved people and never met a stranger. He was straightforward about the Bible.

Kneir impacted many lives by performing countless weddings, baptisms, funerals and counseling, Pam Sharpe said.

Along with pastoring, Kneir enjoyed being a cattle rancher along Black River on his family’s home place, which is recognized as a centennial family farm.

Pam Sharp said her parents were married for 71 years. She and her sister Barbara Ann Hall recall the 11 years her parents cared for their grandmother in their home. They felt like their parents had paid it forward so Hall and her husband, Scott, came from their home in Haslet, Texas, to help the Sharps in caring for their parents.

Memorials may be made to Grace Christian Fellowship.

While the visitation was Monday at Grace Christian Fellowship, 3200 Warrior Lane, the funeral will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the church and is scheduled to be streamed on the Grace Christian Fellowship's Facebook page. Burial is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield.