THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 6, 1995 TAG: 9511060091
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
The late Joseph Palmer Knapp, a publishing tycoon who was anything but tightfisted with his money, is best known in North Carolina for his contributions to education.
But the New York-born sportsman who spent 30 winters on Mackay Island, also contributed a lot of money to ensure that fish and waterfowl would remain plentiful for future generations.
Among the programs Knapp is credited with helping form is Ducks Unlimited, a widely known international group dedicated to the sound management of wetlands and waterfowl habitats.
Last month, a dedication was held at Livingston Manor, Knapp's New York estate and the birthplace of his More Game Birds in America Foundation, which served as the predecessor to Ducks Unlimited.
Knapp also had a hand in other conservation projects that he believed would help save the area's pristine surroundings - and his neighbors' livelihoods.
Today, his Knapp Foundation Inc., founded in 1929, continues to support environmental preservation projects throughout the country.
``Locally and nationally, we count them as one of the Nature Conservancy's valuable supporters,'' said Jeffrey Smith DeBlieu, director of the Conservancy's Nags Head Woods Preserve on the Outer Banks.
In 1992, the Knapp Foundation helped the Conservancy purchase 389 acres of maritime forest in southeast Nags Head, DeBlieu said.
In Maryland, Knapp trustees have donated ``a significant amount'' of land since 1980 to help preserve rare, endangered or threatened species throughout the state, a spokeswoman for the Maryland chapter of the Nature Conservancy said.
Two Eastern Shore preservation projects that have received substantial Knapp Foundation support are the Nanticoke and Nassawango Rivers, biologically rich tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay.
Knapp Foundation trustees prefer to make their gifts quietly. Recipients, in turn, prefer not to divulge the exact dollar amounts of donations out of respect for the trustees' privacy.
There are, however, instances where the foundation's namesake could become vocal for a cause - particularly one that threatened his pristine surroundings.
About the time Knapp moved to Currituck County, locks at the northern end of the Currituck Sound were removed to widen the inland waterway to Norfolk.
Saltwater and pollutants began spilling into the sound. And Knapp successfully lobbied for a congressional bill that restored the water gates.
When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stalled the reinstatement and cited lack of funds, Knapp wrote a personal check for $250,000 to get the project going.
Knapp's heart also went out to local farmers, particularly during the Depression. He helped many of his neighbors keep their Currituck County land and market their crops by financing the Currituck Mutual Exchange.
To other needy families in the rural county, Knapp provided from $25 to $1,200 in single and monthly welfare payments.
Knapp also took an interest in the way elected officials were trained to run local and state governments. He often bent the ear of the late state Sen. Dudley W. Bagley, detailing his ideas of a government science program to prepare and guide elected officials.
The result was the University of North Carolina's Institute of Government, an advisory agency that guides politicians and government officials through public life issues.
A year after his death in 1951, Knapp's wife asked the Knapp Foundation trustees to authorize $500,000 on a matching-fund basis to build a structure to house the Institute of Government.
The result is the Joseph Palmer Knapp Building on the Chapel Hill campus, decorated with antiques from the Knapps' Mackay Island home and with murals depicting scenes from North Carolina history.
The Knapp Foundation also helped the university in other ways to improve education across the state.
A fisheries institute and a vocational training center in Morehead City were established with seed money from the Knapp Foundation around that same time. by CNB