By Deborah Larsen
Lyle Robert “Red” Knapp
Lyle Robert “Red” Knapp was born in Sanilac County, Michigan, on April 17, 1910, the son of Robert and May McElhinney Knapp. Red’s father died when Red was a child, leaving his mother with six children. Red came to Rochester in 1926 to find work and took a job doing construction at Meadow Brook Hall. Wanting to complete his interrupted education, he worked at a garage while attending Rochester High School and graduated in the class of 1931.
After high school, Red operated a gas station in Rochester and opened his own bar and restaurant on Main Street in 1936. When the war began, Red was anxious to do his part and tried to enlist in the armed forces, but was rejected. Undeterred, he enrolled in a cooking and baking school in California for three months, acquiring the necessary training to be accepted by the U.S. Merchant Marine in 1945. He made three trips across the Pacific as the war with Japan was coming to a head. Red then became Chief Steward on the SS Hagerstown Victory, a transport vessel that was ferrying troops across the Atlantic. Red’s brother, Gordon, served as second steward aboard the same ship. The Rochester Era reported that it had received a copy of the Hagerstown Victory’s newspaper, which lauded the improvement in food aboard ship and gave credit to the Knapp brothers for the excellence of the meals served to the crew.
After the war, Red was a well-known and respected businessman and community leader in Rochester. He opened Knapp’s Dairy Bar with his wife in 1950, served as a captain in the fire department, and organized a charitable operation that later became known as The Clothes Closet.
Lyle Robert “Red” Knapp died at age 82 on October 24, 1992, and was laid to rest at Christian Memorial Gardens Cemetery.