Representative William P. Knowlton View All Years

WILL P. KNOWLTON

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of Honorable Will P. Knowlton, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Will P. Knowlton was born October 17, 1885, in Bluffton, Iowa, the son of William and Albertina Knowlton, and passed away in a hospital at Decorah, Iowa, on August 17, 1944.

Mr. Knowlton attended public schools at Decorah and was graduated from the high school there in 1905, and from the University of Iowa, where he played halfback on two football teams, in 1911. On June 12, 1912, he was married to Violet Irene Palmer and they became the parents of three sons, Robert E., Will P. Jr., and Thomas E., and a daughter, Mrs. Marjorie Williams, whose husband is with the Navy in the Atlantic, all of whom survive. Robert and Will, Jr., are in the service of their country, the former with the marines in the South Pacific, and the latter in the same area with the 13th Army Air Force Command. The other members of the family are at home. Robert, a former all-state high school football player, and a grid potential at the University of Iowa when he entered service, has seen action in many rugged battles, including the landing at Tarawa.

Prior to his marriage, Mr. Knowlton was a teacher and superintendent of the Wellman schools. From 1912 to 1914 he was principal of Jefferson schools and in 1915 he was employed in school work at Denison. He later represented a text book company as salesman before entering the real estate business. He was the representative of a text book company from 1917 to 1937, calling on educational groups of Iowa schools.

Mr. Knowlton served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth General Assemblies, and was an unopposed candidate for the House in the Fifty-first General Assembly. Always a fighter for what he believed was right, even though he often was the underdog, Mr. Knowlton was being considered in some quarters as a possible candidate for the speakership of the House of Representatives in the Fifty-first General Assembly.

He was one of eight representatives who fought the bill suspending fifty per cent of the state income tax on the grounds that it was an unwise policy, economically, for the state in the future. As chairman of the House Schools Committee in 1943, Mr. Knowlton sponsored the school code revision bill, which failed to pass, but inspired the appointment of a new commission which included many of the bill’s provisions in a group of new billls now being considered by the General Assembly.

In school work for five years in Iowa, Mr. Knowlton was also familiar with the unpopular practices of the executive department of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, and he was one of the legislators who pushed legislation which would have placed the association under the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The legislation failed but it aroused public sentiment so that a change of policy by the association was effected.

Mr. Knowlton was extremely interested in all taxation bills and took an active part in discussion revolving around them.

Of his service and worth as a citizen, it is difficult to speak adequately, but this committee does not hesitate to say that the sudden removal from our midst of so great a believer in the essentials of truth, honesty, and sincerity, leaves a vacancy and a shadow that is deeply realized and proves a serious loss to the community and the state in which he lived. In the passing of Will P. Knowlton, the State has lost a great and respected citizen.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Fifty-first General Assembly for the State of Iowa, That in the death of Will P. Knowlton, the State has lost a valuable and honorable citizen and the House, by this Resolution, tenders it sincere sympathy to the surviving members of his family in their sorrow; and

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be instructed to send an enrolled copy to the members of the family of the deceased.

F. A. LATCHAW,

ANTHONY TE PASKE,

D. A. DONOHUE,

G. T. KUESTER,

C. M. LANGLAND,

JOE F. GARDNER,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted,