As the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford and a visiting professor at universities in the United States and abroad, George Harmon Knoles forged strong,decades-long relationships with students all over the world.
Knoles, PhD ’39, died at his home in Palo Alto on August 27 of lung cancer. He was 107.
Born in Los Angeles, Knoles received an early lesson in the value of higher education. His father, Tully Knoles, was president of the University of the Pacific for 27 years and oversaw the college’s move from San Jose to Stockton in 1924. George, in his third year of high school at the time, was determined to join the first freshman class at the new campus. By doubling down on his junior- and senior-year requirements, he succeeded in graduating early and enrolled with the rest of the incoming freshmen. He earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of the Pacific, where he also met Amandalee Barker, his future wife.
Knoles taught high school before accepting a faculty position in the history department at Stanford in 1935. He specialized in American social and intellectual history, insisting that the context of historical events is just as revealing and relevant as the events themselves. Over the course of nearly 40 years at Stanford, Knoles received a PhD in history and rose through the academic ranks, chairing his department for 10 years before retiring in 1972.
At age 34, Knoles, distressed to have seen a Stanford history professor and 34 students shipped to internment camps, took a leave from academia to enlist in the U.S. Naval Reserve and was deployed during World War II. After returning to campus, Knoles joined a combined effort by Stanford and Tokyo National University to reconnect American and Japanese scholars. He and academics from four other departments traveled to Japan to share research with Japanese professors and graduate students.
In addition to his post at Stanford, Knoles was a visiting professor at six other universities and taught summer sessions in locations around the world. His daughter Ann Knoles Nitzan, ’55, recalled being shepherded on these and other family trips, her father relying on a guidebook from the late 1800s. “He would ask about something in the book and people wouldn’t even know what he was talking about,” she said, laughing.
Inspired by his parents’ promise to put him and his seven brothers and sisters though college and graduate school, Knoles believed that everyone, regardless of gender, deserved the same academic opportunities. In 2000, he and his wife created the Barker-Knoles Endowed Scholarship at the University of the Pacific, which supports female graduate students pursuing degrees in history and the humanities.
If Knoles was passionate about education and travel, his greatest love was his family. He delighted in bringing everyone together for elaborate breakfasts, a tradition he had started in high school to help his mother; for bike rides through Stanford’s sprawling campus; and to share in his joy of wordplay through puns, both good and bad.
Knoles was predeceased by his wife of 74 years. Besides his daughter Ann, survivors include his daughter Alice Laurane “Laurie” Knoles Simmons, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Hannah I.T. Brown is a Stanford intern.
