[Oe List ...] Remembering Frank Knutson

[Karen Snyder]

These are the words of Ed Feldmanis as he recalls his experiences of Frank Knutson:  

Sitting in the very first collegium in 1971, at the Cleveland Religious House, we new interns introduced ourselves to each other. Frank, who was then known as Bob, began to talk about his Cincinnati background.

Frank had been part of a cadre, with numerous achievements, including recruiting RS-1 and the Parish leadership Colloquy. Like Frank, many of this group were members of the Friendship United Methodist Church. That cadre and it's pastor, Mark Dove, reinvigorated Sunday School classes and created a unique catechism for their youth based on RS-1.

Frank had been the director of a science center located in the repurposed Cincinnati Union Railroad Station. After several years it became apparent that the project was not economically viable, and it was time for Frank to move on. The moment was right for Frank and his family to make a vocational decision to live in a family religious order. 

Frank brought with him a practical approach, logically based, on how to get things done. He was both a great handyman and a practical visionary who understood how to make spiritual events happen. It was Frank who inkinded and operated a used but still working A. B. Dick Press that was located in the Religious House basement. That was the tool that allowed the House to produce brochures and manuals that supported the work of Cleveland region colleagues.

Frank took to heart the call to be comprehensive and created the unique and most extensive Odyssey manual written at that time. When challenged about why it was necessary to be so fastidious, Frank answered that he wanted to create a tool in which a person who had never heard of the Order or The Odyssey could immediately facilitate the event. Frank even included meal menus and a shopping list. Later at the Anchorage Religious House, Frank used not only the comprehensive Odyssey manual, but went on to teach Anchorage house members how to write and produce brochures and manuals that would continue to support local colleagues.

Frank's passion was about the Word, which when he first was addressed by it and had his life changed, wanted to share it with everybody. It was the same Spirit many years later that led Frank to engage with the work of the Living Archives. Frank's domain was as the curator of some 40,000 images and photographs.

          ~~  Ed Feldmanis












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