Meet the president
Dennis McMaster, W&J vice president for business and finance, and Dr. E. Ronald Salvitti with Dr. Knapp at the college’s announcement event in April.
When Dr. John C. Knapp was president of Hope College in Holland, Mich., he and his wife, Kelly, started a tradition of lighting a campus Christmas tree and singing Christmas carols with students. The couple regularly dined in the cafeteria with undergraduates and invited students to their home to bake cookies or to munch on chips and salsa, and hundreds turned out for the get-togethers.
Knapp, who was unanimously approved in April by the board of trustees to serve as the 13th president of Washington & Jefferson College, plans to continue informal gatherings with W&J students.
“Kelly and I find great joy in our daily involvement with college students. We have a great love for 18- to 22-year-olds. We love the opportunity to mentor them and be a part of their lives,” says Knapp, who moved into the President’s House, a 17-room Victorian mansion built in 1892, and began his duties on Aug. 1. “We consider it a blessing to live on campus and to be surrounded by college students day and night.”
Knapp, 57, who spent much of his career in Georgia, comes to W&J from Hope College, a small, western Michigan liberal arts school where he served as president for the past four years.
Previously, he served as a professor and a founding director of Samford University’s Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership. Knapp also was a professor and director of the Center of Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State University.
The author of five books, Knapp served as senior scholar and professor of ethical leadership at Kennesaw State University and adjunct professor of ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary.
At Hope College, he oversaw construction of several facilities funded through a $203 million capital campaign. He also started the Presidential Colloquium lecture series in 2014 and played a role in the college joining the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan as an educational partner in 2016.
Knapp succeeds Dr. Tori Haring-Smith, who retired in June following 12 years as president.
”I have deep respect for Dr. Haring-Smith, and I give tremendous credit to her for her leadership at W&J,” says Knapp, who was selected after a nation-wide search and officially welcomed to W&J during an event in April.
“W&J has a long history of excellence in education, witnessed by the success of our graduates, innovation in our programs and curriculum, and our community outreach initiatives,” says Richard T. Clark, chairman of the college’s board of trustees. “Dr. Knapp’s skill set – management experience in a variety of academic arenas, a strong record of partnering effectively with faculty, a deep commitment to strategic and ethical leadership, and deep commitment to the liberal arts – make him a superb fit for W&J and the larger Washington & Jefferson community.”
Knapp and his older sister were raised in Decatur, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. Their parents, who both served in World War II, were professional artists who worked in the same studio. His father was a photographer, and his mother, who worked with oils, was a portrait painter.
Neither of Knapp’s parents attended college, and they could not afford to send him to college, so Knapp, an advocate for educational access and affordability, worked to pay his tuition as an undergraduate at Georgia State University. After earning a degree in urban life with a concentration in communications at Georgia State, Knapp earned a doctorate in theology and religious studies at the University of Wales, United Kingdom, and a master’s degree in theological studies at Columbia Theological Seminary.
Before he started his academic career, Knapp served as president of a communications consulting firm in Atlanta. He founded and chaired the Atlanta Diversity Management Network, a project dedicated to sharing best practices among the region’s largest employers, including five universities.
As a freshman at Georgia State, Knapp discovered a passion for sailing, after a group of upperclassmen took him out on their boat. He and his wife, who met when he was working for a U.S. congressional campaign and Kelly was a newspaper reporter covering the election night results, bought a sailboat as soon as they were married in 1985.
The couple spent time sailing the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Georgia, inland lakes in the South, and, most recently, Lake Michigan.
While the Knapps still plan to charter sailboats occasionally when they vacation, they recently shipped their sailboat to Oregon, where their son, Charlie, plans to live on it.
Knapp and his wife have five grown children and two grandchildren.
The couple also enjoy hiking and history, and plan to explore trails and historical locations in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
But Knapp’s first priority is to “continue to make W&J ever more distinct and distinguished in a crowded field of options available to students,” he says.
He also is keenly aware of the issue of college affordability and the impact that the rising cost of tuition has on many students. “It’s on our minds every day. The price of a private education is not inexpensive and, therefore, to deliver the high-quality programs W&J provides to students, it’s essential to augment tuition dollars with funds from other sources, including alumni who will help continue the education of students,” Knapp says. “We rely very much on people who love the college to keep the college going. We also have a responsibility to make sure students don’t get in over their heads financially when they graduate.”
Knapp wants to work with the W&J community and the city of Washington on projects – including the small-business incubator launched last fall by W&J and Observer Publishing Co. – to “prepare students to thrive as global citizens in an increasingly diverse society, and to lead with integrity in their personal and professional lives.”
During his tenure as president of Hope College, Knapp, who is as warm and genuine as he is smart, attended as many collegiate athletic events, musical performances and extracurricular campus activities as his schedule allowed. He even accepted students’ invitation to play on an intramural softball team, aptly named “All the President’s Men.”
At various times, he’s held season tickets to Atlanta’s professional sports teams – the Braves, Falcons and Hawks – and attended Game Six of the 1995 World Series, where the Braves clinched the championship against the Cleveland Indians. He’s also a “huge fan” of NCAA Division III athletics.
“The competition is exciting, yet the athletes are students first,” he notes.
Knapp acknowledged the challenges that liberal arts colleges face today, but embraces the demands.
“I understand the challenges, but it’s also incredibly rewarding work,” Knapp says. “I wouldn’t be eager to do it a second time if I did not believe that. The experience of meeting those nervous, uncertain freshmen and watching them grow into competent adults, and making a difference in their lives, is a richly rewarding thing.”