Robert Knoll
1922 - 2009
Robert E. Knoll, a beloved University of Nebraska-Lincoln emeritus professor of English, died at his Lincoln home Jan. 8. He was 86.
Knoll's death was announced to the campus Jan. 9 via an email from UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who stated, "For those of you who have been around UNL for some time you know Robert was a unique individual whose passion for and understanding of this university were unmatched. He wrote a history of the university which remains definitive and he shared with many of us some of his observations about that history that were not 'printable.' He was during his time with us larger than life and he remains so."
During his 40-year career at UNL, Knoll taught generations of students to enjoy the rich beauty of English language and literature, pioneered a number of innovative teaching initiatives, was an exemplary academic citizen and first-rate scholar. At his retirement in 1990, he was Paula and Woody Varner Professor of English. He also had been a George Holmes Distinguished Professor, an honor conferred only on the university's most-esteemed faculty. Additionally, he had received a distinguished teaching award from UNL's College of Arts and Sciences.
Knoll was a specialist in Shakespeare, but he also taught courses in Plains literature, English Renaissance literature, English history, American and British literature between 1922 and 1950, and composition. He was an adviser to the NU Student Council, a precursor the current UNL student government, served on the faculty senate, chaired the Willa Cather centennial festival in 1973 and the Wright Morris centennial festival in 1976. In 1988, he was named Nebraska's Professor of the Year by the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He was a Fulbright lecturer in Graz, Austria; a Woods fellow; and served a fellowship at Yale University, appointed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a founding member of UNL's Centennial College, an innovative undergraduate teaching initiative in 1968. He was a founding member and fellow in UNL's Center for Great Plains Studies.
In 1997, the UNL Alumni Association gave Knoll its "Doc" Elliott Award, conferred on an emeritus faculty members in honor of their outstanding record of service and caring to students.
Knoll, a 1943 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Nebraska, joined the faculty in 1950 as an assistant professor of English; he was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1957, and promoted to full professor in 1961. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1947 and 1950 respectively. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943-1946.
Knoll wrote dozens of critical essays, books, television treatments and other scholarly works. He was a scholar of artist-writer Weldon Kees, publishing several books about Kees work and life. He also published works on writers Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and Robert McAlmon. In 1995, he published what has become known as the definitive history of the university, "Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska." Knoll was particularly suited for the task, as both his parents and many members of his family were NU graduates and he was personally acquainted with early NU luminaries such as Louise Pound.
Knoll was exceptionally proud of the university. On the occasion of receiving the CASE professor of the year in 1988, Knoll delivered a lecture in which he described, among many things, his belief in the importance of the university:
"Our first, continuous and inescapable responsibility is teaching our students. All else follows from this. As a University, we are fundamentally committed to scholarly teaching, to inducting our students into the mysteries and delights of learning. We are more than an experiment station, not just and outpost for business research, not simply a technological laboratory in service to industry. First, last and all the time, we are a university with 23,000 students who deserve our devotion and our mature instruction. All our research -- our creation of art, the discoveries of science, the writing of articles and books -- will be meaningless without a new generation able to understand and build on what we have accomplished. We are never further than a generation away from barbarianism.
"The students deserve our disciplined love, which means that we should sometimes leave them alone to make their own discoveries even as we go off alone to make our own discoveries. They neither want nor should have a brooding protection from life. This is life. A university education is a part of life, not an artificial preparation for life."
In an 1990 interview prior to his retirement, Knoll said he planned to continue to be active in the university community.
"I became a professor because I like conversation," Knoll said. "And I don't intend to stop talking."
Robert Knoll is survived by his wife, Virginia, two daughters, a son and grandchildren.
