In Memoriam
Robert E. Knight
Robert Knight
1963 graduation
Robert E. Knight died in Loveland, CO on August 13, 2016. Born in Alliance, NE, he graduated from Alliance High School in 1959 and from Yale College with high honors in Economics in 1963.
Bob received his M.A. in 1965 and his Ph.D. in 1968 from Harvard University.
He spent 13 years as a monetary economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, where he rose to be Secretary of the Board. Bob moved from Kansas City to become the fourth generation to head the Alliance National Bank and Trust Company. He authored numerous economic articles and spoke throughout the country on banking issues.
Bob was one of five Yale classmates featured in Halftime, a 1988 film aired on PBS about men in midlife. He headed the Bondholders Protective Committee in the bankruptcy of Executive Life Insurance Company in California.
Bob was a proud eccentric who flew kites and enjoyed donning his clan kilts, Gunn and McPhee, for Scottish activities. Ever devoted to dachshunds, he contributed to cancer research at the Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and established Duffeeland Dog Park in Sun City, AZ.
He succumbed to a one-in-a-million brain disease, cortico-basal degeneration. In 1966 he married his beloved wife, Eva Youngstrom Knight, who survives to cherish a lifetime of memories.
Geoff Noyes writes: “We all know Bob best as one of the five subjects of our 25th Reunion PBS video, Halftime. From our experience there, he and I became best friends. I was with him at the end, and let me report that his dry, often acerbic and sharp political wit never left him. One of his last pronouncements to me was, ‘Geoff, I will make it to November 8th!’ He is survived by his beloved wife of 50 years, Eva, by several Yale summer externs, and by countless friends.”