Kenyon Knopf, Ph.D. was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1921. In 1942, he graduated from Kenyon College with honors in economics, then joined the Army Air Force, where he served from 1943 to 1946. After returning to the United States, Knopf would go on to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, then accept a position as an economics professor at Grinnell College. Knopf would hold this position for eighteen years, even serving as the Chairman of Faculty and the Acting Dean of Grinnell, until he was hired as the Dean of Students at Whitman College in 1967 by President Louis Perry.

Knopf would remain a member of Whitman’s faculty for over two decades, holding various positions such Dean of Students, Provost, Acting President, and economics professor. Knopf was given the title of Provost in 1970, and would technically serve as Acting President three times: unofficially from 1967 to 1968 after President Perry’s resignation, unofficially again from 1973 to 1974 when President Donald Sheehan was hospitalized, and officially from 1974 to 1975 following President Sheehan’s passing. Additionally, Knopf held the title of Chairman of the American Conference of Academic Deans.

During the period where he was officially recognized as Acting President, Knopf would oversee and navigate Whitman through a slew of controversial events, both from internal issues with the faculty and external pressure from the student body to diversify and protect campus. On the whole, Knopf’s background compelled him to focus on the financial aspects of the college, including the integration of pay scales to improve salaries, which he succeeded in implementing.

In the years prior to and following his retirement in 1989, Knopf would dedicate himself to his community in Mill Creek. When the city of Walla Walla pushed for a hydroelectric plant at the reservoir at Mill Creek, Knopf was an active member of the Mill Creek Glen Protection Association, or the MCGPA. On behalf of the MCGPA, Knopf contacted state representatives in both Washington and Oregon, contractors of the Federal Highway Administration, and community members in and around Mill Creek to protest the project. Knopf would go on to speak against the project in court in 1985. Eventually, he and his wife would move to La Conner, Washington, where he would live until his passing in 2013.