Dr Harry Grove Robert "Bob" Knapp

Harry Grove Robert (Bob) Knapp, MD
7 May 1923 - 28 Dec 2010

Joan Marie Torgeson Knapp
31 Aug 1930 - 7 Jul 2014

Bob Knapp died of natural causes December 28, 2010, at Boulder Community Hospital. He was 87.
He had lived in Rifle and practiced medicine there for the first 6 years of his private practice
Bob was born May 7, 1923, to Dr. Harry Grove (1885-1974) and Myrlie Lola Stiles (1890-1973) Knapp at Minot, North Dakota.
Bob's father had retired, and moved to Rifle from Canon City in October of 1952. The father then joined the son in 1953 as a visiting physician at Rifle Community Hospital. It looks like the Sr Dr. Knapp remained in Rifle after the Jr Dr. Knapp left, finally moving to Grand Junction in 1972.
Bob was the 4th of 5 children, had one brother, three sisters, and was the last of the siblings surviving. His youngest sister, Emily, died at age 16 in a car crash, the seven other teens in the car survived.
The siblings:
Frances Helen (1914-1988)
Kenneth Edmond (1916-2008)
Beveriy Mae (1922-1989)
Harry Grove "Bob" (1923 - 2010)
Emily Blythe (1928-1944)
Bob graduated from Junior High School in Palm Beach, Florida, then from Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School in Washington, D.C.
He completed his premed studies at
Colorado College in Colorado Springs also spending a semester at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He graduated in 1943.
In the fall of 1943, he started his medical training at Maryland University in Baltimore, Md., under the accelerated trainIng program in effect during World war II. As a result, he obtained his doctor's degree in 1946 at the age of 23.
He interned for 15 months at Colorado General hospltal in Denver, then entered the Army as a Captain. He served for two years total between Fitzsimons hospital in Denver, Letterman General hospital in San Francisco, and on the Army hospital ships Comfort and Hope, as the Chief Medical Officer in charge of treating military patients returning from Germany and Japan.
Upon discharge from the Army, in 1948, he entered anf completed a residency in Family Practice at the University of Colorado at Denver. He then moved to Rifle.
From 1951 to 1957, he practiced medicine at Rifle where he was also president of the Kiwanis Club.
In 1953, Bob married Joan Marie Torgeson in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was born August 31, 1930, to Theodore A. and Elsie A. Torgeson in Estevan.
Bob and Joan raised four children:
Linda Knapp MacDougall
Michael Ross
Robert
Ted
Joan was a talented musician who played violin. In Rifle, she always participated with the Rifle Music Club and wherever a venue was available.
Some of the other local musicians she performed with included Eleanor Rees, Emma Cross, Nata Mason, Mary Deane Harlow, Helen Smith, Sylvia Miles, Winona Peterson, Myrlie Knapp, Grace Duke, Grace Tucker, Leona Crockett, and Georgia Rae Wood.
About 20 years after leaving Rifle, in 1977, Joan graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a PhD, in Literature.
In 1957, Bob left Rifle, becoming a resident in Orthopedic Surgery in Memphis, Tennessee, and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Together with other physicians, the two Dr. Knapp's were instrumental in the establishment of Rifle Community Hospital which opened in 1953.
In 1960, Bob accepted a position as Associate Professor of Orthopedics at the University of Arkansas. He was a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery.
In 1963, he moved to Boulder and established a private practice in Orthopedic Surgery, which he continued for 20 years, until 1983, when he was 60 years old.
Dr: Knapp was a member of First United Methodist Church, Boulder County Medical Society, Colorado Medical Society, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Kiwanis Club of Boulder, the University of Colorado Directors Club, the Boulder Opera Buffs, and the First Sunday Nighters Play Group.
He loved his family and enjoyed friends, classical music, travel, hunting, fishing, skiing, and fixing things.
He was preceded in death by all his siblings, three sisters and a brother. He was survived by a daughter, Linda MacDougall (Scott), of Clovis, California; three sons, Michael (Silvia) of San Francisco, Robert (Patricia) of Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Ted (Karla), of Parker, Colorado; and five grandchildren.
Burial was in Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Boulder County, Colorado.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions were suggested to be made to First United Methodist
Church in Boulder 1401 Spruce St., Boulder, CO 80302. Or to the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, 2590 Walnut St, Boulder CO 80302.

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