Remembering Gene Knapp 1930-2015

— Remarks by Randall Gaylord to the San Juan County Council, Oct. 20, 2015 —

I’m here today to share the sad news that after an extended illness, Gene Knapp died on Sunday afternoon at his home on Orcas Island. He was 85 years old. I want to extend my condolences to his wife Tish, and their children and grandchildren.

Gene and I were friends and neighbors on Buckhorn Road. Gene kept up the fence, a common boundary of over 300 feet. Mending all the fences was regular work, and it was a pastime he seemed to enjoy – a way to take a break from the toil of the office. A fence was entirely necessary, for his family shared the property and historic farmhouse with many dogs, geese, emus, wallabies, horses, donkeys and other animals.

Over the years, we helped each other with personal, legal, and political efforts. We shared a respect and trust that comes from a mutual commitment to community.

As a leader, Gene set an example of a person who listened quietly, waited for the right moment to speak, and when he did he went right to the point.

When Gene spoke, people listened.

Gene served this county in many ways.

At age 49, the voters elected Gene, an accomplished trial attorney in Seattle, to the first of two terms as the San Juan County Prosecuting Attorney. Becoming a country lawyer and small county prosecutor is a big transition for a city trial lawyer. Gene often told the story about how he researched the infrequent murder rate in the county because he wanted to minimize handling violent criminal offenses.

Yet, upon his arrival one of the county’s most infamous cases, the murder of Rolf Neslund, fell to him and eventually to the state supreme court, as one of the first successful “no body homicide” prosecution. He forged new relationships with the Attorney General’s Office and convinced them to start a program of providing trial assistance to small local prosecutor’s offices. An eager young deputy prosecutor named Charlie Silverman and assistant attorney general Greg Canova tried the Neslund case.

Gene focused on contentious and complex land use disputes. Gene oversaw the county’s adoption and later re-adoption of the first comprehensive land use plan. Lawsuits against the County followed, which he successfully defended with the help of Karen Vedder.

Gene knew how to navigate the legal world and solve legal problems as a trial attorney, arbitrator and mediator. Charlie Silverman remembers that “Gene guided the country through the legal shoals during those difficult, contentious and formative years with intelligence, wisdom, common sense, dignity, a quiet strength, and that amazing ‘Knapp calmness’ in the face of calamitous storms.”

After leaving the prosecutor’s office, Gene returned to private practice in Bellingham and Mt. Vernon but he stayed involved in public service. He was on the first board of the Land Bank for 10 years, and served as its chair for two years. His role in the early years of the Land Bank was crucial to its lasting success. He also served on the board of the Orcas Medical Center and the Orcas Center.

In 2005, at age 75, Gene was again elected to office, this time as a Freeholder to study and recommend a “home rule” charter for San Juan County. His campaign was simple: use the charter to modernize county government and make it better.

Gene knew that adopting the charter was one thing, and implementing it was another. So after the charter was adopted, he ran unopposed in the first non-partisan elections for our six member County Council and worked passionately in the transition to the charter form of government. Gene walked the talk.

Gene brought civility to the County Council, and he is remembered by Charlie Silverman as a person who “worked hard to move us forward by finding common ground and treating everyone with respect.” What I remember is that although Gene stood a foot taller than most, he never talked down to others.

Reflecting today, I can say with confidence that Gene Knapp embodied the best of what we want in a lawyer and a public servant.