Russell F. Knapp, Class of 1930, enrolled in Coe College in 1926 as a graduate of old Washington Senior High School in Cedar Rapids, where he was captain of its tennis team and well qualified for his destiny as a pioneer of Coe tennis competition In 1929, he was elected captain of an undefeated Coe tennis team. In 1930, he was Coe's ranking number one player on a squad that won the Midwest Conference Championship.
During that same season he defeated the ranking player for the University of low and together with his partner defeated the lowa doubles team in the same match play.
Russell Knapp's successful college athletic career was a harbinger of events to come. Since his graduation, he has been living proof that exercise and nutrition are twin elixirs for a long life of vigorous activity. Knapp won the Cedar Rapids City Tennis Championships in 1943 and 1944. Thirty-three years later, in 1977, he played with a United States Tennis Association Super Senior team in Wimbledon, England. He remains the only Coe graduate to attain national senior rankings by that association, all of which he won in competition in 1978, 1983, 1988 and most recently in 1993, some sixty-three years after his graduation.
As a Coe student always in roles of leadership, he was president of his freshman and senior classes, president of the Clan of "C," a member of the Student Council, and Sachem Senior Men's Honor Society.
As a Coe graduate, he has presided over the National Alumni Association, received the Coe Alumni Service Award and, after nine years of active membership, was elected in 1978 a Life Trustee of the college.
Russ Knapp's ageless life story is a reflection of intensity, tenacity and enthusiasm. His activities have covered a kaleidoscopic range of civic, charitable and business accomplish-ment. He founded Securities Corporation of Iowa, a company which is not only a financial success but also always in the vanguard of public support. He has served as President of Iowa Investment Banker's Association, President of YMCA Board of Directors, President of Young Men's Bureau of Chamber of the Commerce, President of the Board of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, and is a Life Trustee of St. Luke's Methodist Hospital.
Russ Knapp's life of conspicuous achievement in personal affairs and service to others has not gone without public notice. He has been Churchman of the Year, recipient of the Civic Award for Outstanding Service from the Jaycees of Chamber of Commerce, and he received the John M. Ely, Sr. Outstanding Layman Award from the Cedar Rapids and Marion YMCAs.
We recognize a venerable athlete, business leader, philanthropist, builder of community and causes, and a true friend of Coe College.
It is my particular pleasure to present Russell F. Knapp for induction into the Coe College Athletic Hall of Fame.
