By: Dr. Darron Arlt - PHS Superintendent
Pirate Nation lost one of our all-time greatest contributors and ambassadors last week.
For nearly half of Plainview Public Schools existence, Mr. Larry Knaak taught, coached and influenced students, athletes, and colleagues.
That’s nearly 60 years of commitment and dedication…from the early 1960s until his golf coaching days came to an end in 2020.
I have many specific memories of Mr./Coach Knaak. I knew I liked, and was sort of good at, math. I recall wanting to please him with the accuracy and speed with which I completed my classwork. One particular interaction from the early 1980’s that is still very vivid in my memory is one class period, we exchanged homework papers to grade, which was a much more common practice than it is today.
Mr. Knaak would read off the answers to the problems and the classmate sitting in front of or behind us would mark them right or wrong and then put the grade on the top of the paper and then hand them back. Mr. Knaak would take out his red grade book and read off names and we’d holler out our grade. Again, a routine practice at the time but seldom if ever used today.
It dawned on me that Mr. Knaak never collected the homework. We could conspire with the classmate that graded the paper and say any grade we wanted. How would he know? I thought I found a way to outsmart the smartest teacher in the school.
But my scruples got the best of me and instead of cheating, I thought I’d just ask. “Mr. Knaak, how do you know we’re telling you the right grade?” He replied, “Darron, how do you know what grade I’m writing down?”
Nicely played sir! That has stuck with me for decades. My takeaway was that Mr. Knaak was always just one (or more) steps ahead of everyone. He was steady. He was prepared. He made it look easy.
I never observed him upset or flustered and never did I see a student try to get him upset or flustered. Students oftentimes think they can outsmart a teacher, but we knew that we’d just end up looking foolish if we tried with Mr. Knaak so no one ever tried.
I recall unboxing the first computers about 1983 for our first computer lab…which was in a storage room between 2 classrooms on the 2nd floor of the 1920 building. We had three different types of computers and for the class, we just explored what these machines could do. Back then, it was about coding. We had to input the precise language to get some sort of preferred response from the machine. Most of the time, I really couldn’t get the computer to do much.
I’d ask Mr. Knaak something to the effect of “Why won’t this work?” He’d reply with “GIGO” and then wouldn’t tell us what “GIGO” meant. I don’t know how many years it was before I realized that it meant “Garbage in. Garbage out.”
Mr. Knaak introduced me to a Butterfinger Blizzard in 1985 and to this day, it’s the only one I've ever ordered.
I tell my wife the story every time we go through the drive through at DQ. We were on the way home from a practice round of golf at Beemer. Blizzards were a new treat at DQ and we asked if we could stop and get one. As we pulled into the drive through and saw the list of Blizzard options, he said one word…”Butterfinger.”
As usual, I felt obligated to obey him so that’s what I ordered too...and every time since for the last 40 years.
Mr. Knaak could come across a bit aloof but you couldn't help but feel a connection to him. He was kind of like a wise uncle that would tease you but never in a mean or hurtful way. It was the kind of ribbing that you welcomed because he was paying attention to you.
Kids can “feel” the attitude of their teacher and his was one of confidence, wit, responsibility, and a sense that he was maybe way overqualified to be a high school teacher. It seemed like he should be working for NASA but he was here, at PHS, and he stayed…for 60 years!
Rest in peace Mr. Knaak and on behalf of Plainview Public Schools and the 1,000’s of students and athletes whose lives you influenced, well done, good and faithful servant.