Albert Ray Knotts Jr. ’48

Al Knotts died of leukemia on June 28, 1999, at his Blackstone, Va., home, three and a half miles from the Nottoway County house where he was born. He was 73.

Al was a retired United Methodist minister. He had served churches from Richmond to Petersburg to Danville to Roanoke and places in between. He retired to Blackstone in 1991.

Al earned his degree in 1950 in aeronautical engineering. He played 150-lb. football and was in Cloister. He was in the Navy from 1944-46. He first worked in the automobile business and then with the Virginia Dept. of Transportation until 1952. He then attended seminary at Duke and was ordained in 1955.

Al was multitalented. He designed and help build a church at Pembroke. At Rocky Mount he repaired the church's chimes, which had been silent for 15 years; this involved making the precision parts needed as the company that made the original parts no longer existed.

An avid golfer, Al was active in a number of civic organizations, though his primary love and concern was his family. This was followed by his love and concern for his parishioners.

To his widow, Mable, and sons, Albert, David and Steven, the class extends its deepest sympathy and shares in their loss.

The Class of 1948