THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 6, 1995 TAG: 9511060090
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ST. MICHAELS, MD. LENGTH: Long : 220 lines
In the attic of a real estate building along car-clogged Talbot Street is The Knapp Foundation headquarters, where millions of dollars have been given to aid the sick, educate the young, preserve the past and help the environment.
But there is nothing along St. Michaels' busiest thoroughfare to indicate that the heirs of the late Joseph Palmer Knapp, a publishing magnate who is regarded as one of northeastern North Carolina's biggest benefactors, work here.
There are no signs on the building. There's nothing in the town's numerous tourist brochures. The ``Knapp folks,'' as they are sometimes called, go unnoticed in a harbor town teeming with tourists.
And that's just how they like it.
``We're just country comfort people,'' says a soft-spoken Ruth Capranica, who with her mother, Antoinette P. ``Ann'' Vojvoda, runs the philanthropic organization.
The Knapp Foundation was begun in the 1920s by Knapp to ensure that his legendary generosity would continue for generations.
Here, among the beautifully restored Victorian homes, churches and upscale souvenir shops, a time-honored tradition of giving continues. This tradition has improved the quality of life for thousands of people throughout North Carolina and the Eastern Shore.
``He didn't want the notoriety. He didn't want his name in lights,'' Capranica said of her great-grandfather. ``It was just a genuine concern and need of his to help other people, because he had it to give and that's what he did.
``We don't request publicity when grants are given. It wasn't his nature,'' Capranica said. ``And the trustees have tried to uphold that.''
No place knows this better than Currituck County, whose school system was revolutionized by Knapp, a New York publisher, after he adopted the county as his winter home.
Knapp used his own money to build schools and teacherages, start educational programs, hire a traveling nurse and even supplement teachers' salaries.
Wanting only the best for his new neighbors, Knapp recruited a woman from Washington's Federal Bureau of Education to serve as superintendent of the county's school system. When county officials could not meet her salary demands, Knapp used his own resources to make up the difference.
At Christmas time, Knapp made sure every schoolchild on Knotts Island received clothing, school supplies, eyeglasses and, if needed, medical care and food.
Today, the gifts continue in Currituck County - more than 30 years after Knapp was buried in a Moyock cemetery. Regular donations are still made to library systems, grants are given for special projects and, in recent years, college scholarships have been awarded.
Since 1929, more than $1.3 million has been given to the Currituck County school system, with much of that amount doled out during Knapp's years as a part-time county resident.
``For a public school system, it's very unique, particularly given the length of time you consider,'' said W.R. ``Ronnie'' Capps, Currituck's schools superintendent.
``There's been a 65-year period there of supporting our schools to one extent or another. That's very unusual in any circumstance.''
Still, Capps said, ``I don't think the foundation itself is too well-known.''
Although Knapp never sought public adulation for his charitable work, he's received some posthumously. Throughout North Carolina, and particularly in Currituck County, Knapp's name fills the landscape.
His gravesite is visited annually by children from Knotts Island Elementary School, which Knapp built and continues to support through his foundation.
Down State Route 168, in the unincorporated town of Currituck, is the Knapp teacherage, now the school system's central offices, and Knapp Junior High School. A third Knapp-funded building, Moyock High School, burned in the 1940s.
To improve school transportation, Knapp spent personal money to kindle statewide interest in road improvements throughout Currituck County. A relatively new bridge in Coinjock pays homage to him.
Even as far west as Chapel Hill, Knapp's name is known. The University of North Carolina's Institute of Government is housed in the red-bricked Joseph Palmer Knapp Building.
The man who devoted much of his life to helping North Carolinians was born in 1864 in Brooklyn. N.Y.
The son of the founder of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., young Knapp attended public schools and spent a year at Columbia University before becoming a board director in his father's company.
Soon, though, Knapp decided to seek his fortune in publishing. He bought a printing company that later joined others to become MacMillan Publishing Co. Inc.
Around 1916, Knapp visited the lush wetlands and waterways of Currituck County, lured by the area's legendary fishing and hunting.
The sportsman was so taken with the area that he and his wife, Margaret, bought the 7,000-acre Mackay Island in 1920 and built a 37-room, three-story hunting lodge that served as their home between November and April.
The land has since been taken over by the federal government. The lodge sold for a song in the 1960s. Soon after, it was dismantled.
Vojvoda, Knapp's granddaughter, lived on Long Island as a child and often accompanied her mother on visits to visit Knapp when he was in New York. She vividly recalls North Carolina.
``I remember the house. And I remember the lovely Christmas we had there,'' she said of the trip the family made when she was 12. ``And I remember that road through the marsh - it just seemed to go on forever.''
Vojvoda, who bears a strong resemblence to Knapp, recalls that her grandfather spent most days working in his den. ``In those days, you know, children were seen and not heard,'' she said.
No doubt, some of Knapp's den sessions were spent deciding how to distribute his wealth throughout Currituck County and his other country home in Lewbeach, N.Y.
When Knapp arrived in Currituck, children attended school only six months each year. Many could not afford the books needed to study or had trouble getting to the one-room schoolhouses.
Their parents, who worked as farmhands, hunting guides and fishermen, often were poorly educated themselves.
Knapp dedicated the rest of his life to improving the quality of the community for the people around him. At first he wrote checks from his personal accounts. Then he and his wife set up a couple trust funds: one in New York in 1923 and another six years later in North Carolina.
The first, The Knapp Foundation of New York Inc., began in 1923 to assist employees unable to afford costly medical and dental care. ``He offered a lot of these no-interest loans to assist them and their families. Sometimes they paid him back,'' Capranica said. ``Sometimes they did not.''
After the nation's public health care programs began, applications for the medical benefit dwindled. The foundation dissolved and eventually became the Knapp Educational Foundation Inc., assisting with college expenses through scholarships.
Designed exclusively for workers of MacMillan and its subsidiaries, the foundation's educational arm expanded in 1989-90 to include Currituck County high school seniors. To date, several dozen Currituck college students have received a total $225,000.
``It's the largest single individual contribution of scholarships that we have,'' said Bill Dobney, Currituck's assistant superintendent and a longtime member of the scholarship selections committee.
Amy Casey of the Class of '91 was a Knapp scholar. This year, she returned to Currituck to teach after earning a degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
``He was part of the reason they're where they are today, really,'' Casey, who works at Moyock Elementary School, said of Knapp's contribution to her school system.
Many others share her sentiment.
``I think probably the most important thing is that Mr. Knapp helped Currituck, even that many years ago, become a progressive, forward-looking school district,'' Capps said.
``And we are still reaping the rewards in terms of those progressive expectations being there - and the support that local county officials give the schools.''
There was - and still is - a condition placed on Knapp money: Most grants require matching funds.
That policy has been tested in the past, particularly in 1950, when Currituck found a new source of revenue by establishing a dog racing track in the northern part of the county.
When The Knapp Foundation discovered the dog track proceeds had replaced taxpayers' contributions to schools, the philanthropical organization began to pull back its funding.
Then the dog track was declared unconstitutional. And property owners again started to foot part of the bill for education. The Knapp Foundation kicked in again, too.
Today, the Knapp Foundation's annual contributions, such as those to replenish library materials, still help keep tax bills down, Dobney said.
``We receive these monies to promote the humanitarian efforts that Mr. Knapp started when he was alive,'' he said. ``I would say very few places have had a benefactor like Mr. Knapp and his heirs. We're just extremely lucky that Mr. Knapp selected Currituck as his adopted home.''
To some degree, it is Knapp's charitable legacy - and little else - that links the Knapp descendants to the northeastern North Carolina area.
Three of the foundation's six trustees - Vojvoda, her husband, Bob, and Capranica - live in St. Michaels, where the foundation was moved from New England in 1987. Vojvoda's sister, Margaret Newcombe, lives in Florida. And daughter Sylvia Penny and her husband, George, live in Long Island.
A grandmother of 11 and a St. Michaels resident for 22 years, Vojvoda still has friends in Currituck County. But she admits she doesn't visit the area nearly as much as she'd like.
Capranica, a mother of two and wife of a financial adviser, has never been to Currituck. But she said she sees similarities in the two areas her foundation supports.
``It's a farming community. It's a waterman's community. It has all the similarities of the lifestyles on the Eastern Shore,'' Capranica said.
The office that the Knapp Foundation leaders work out of two days a week is simply decorated and a reflection of the studied elegance that surrounds the town.
Inside one of three blue-trimmed rooms is a glass display case that holds gifts from foundation beneficiaries.
Most compelling among the smorgasbord of presents is a shelf holding a full place setting of royal red- and gold-plated china that Lenox made for the foundation after it gave first lady Nancy Reagan $200,000 to update the White House china in the early 1980s.
Reagan - and Knapp trustees - were sharply criticized for what appeared to be extravagant spending when the country was struggling in the midst of a recession.
``Much of what she did at that time was all private funds. But it was not presented that way,'' Capranica said. ``We were not protected from some of that fallout. We received letters from Americans who did not feel it was appropriate for us to buy china for the White House.''
The exquisite dinnerware is hidden from public view. It is yet another small reminder that much of The Knapp Foundation's work - which has amounted to untold millions of dollars in college, conservation and historical preservation grants throughout the country - is done quietly.
Some say the family's public shyness prevents them from receiving the praise they deserve.
``I think, in our modern society, that tradition is becoming more important because there's less and less of it. I would compliment them on maintaining the longstanding relationship between the Knapps and Currituck County,'' Capps said.
``It's a selfless act that keeps repeating itself. I wish our young people and our community could see more of that.''
Vojvoda said she has wondered what her grandfather would think of the projects she and other Knapp descendants have supported.
``Yes, I've often thought about that,'' she said, pausing ever so briefly before adding, ``I think he would be very pleased.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
ANNE SAITA
The Virginian-Pilot
Ruth Capranica, left, with her mother, Antoinette P. ``Ann''
Vojvoda, runs The Knapp Foundation, established in the 1920s by
Joseph Palmer Knapp. The New York publishing magnate, who had a
winter home in Currituck, was one of this region's biggest
benefactors.
by CNB