- Date Of Birth: September 2, 1935
- Date Of Death: August 29, 2014
- State: Maine
Richard “Rick” Knittel
September 2, 1935
August 29, 2014
South Portland – Richard (Rick) Knittel passed away peacefully in his home in South Portland on Friday evening, August 29, 2014. His death followed a courageous decade with Parkinson’s disease. Born on September 2, 1935, he died a few days before his 79th birthday.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, the oldest of four sons of Harry J. Knittel and Helen D. Seib, he grew up in Union, New Jersey, attending school there. He studied jazz trombone at school and formed a band while still in high school. He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University, where he played in the marching band,
and formed a Dixieland jazz band, The Cornell Ivy Five. He began his career in plastics engineering at Union Carbide, and went on to work for various plastics machinery design firms, traveling extensively for work. As a member of several plastic engineer societies, he gave many professional papers, presenting at conferences in Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout the U.S. While living in Maine, he formed a consulting business to the plastics industry, and was called upon as an expert witness in legal cases involving machinery design.
He was a member of the New Jersey Jazz Society, and frequently performed at clubs in New York and New Jersey, including the Village Vanguard and The Cajun. He
regularly attended the annual memorial weekends in Davenport, IA which commemorated the life of jazz hero Bix Beiderbecke, performing with the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Band. He also had the opportunity to play at Preservation Hall in New Orleans. After moving to Maine, he continued playing jazz with different groups and formed the Maine Street Paraders with the late Craig Johnson.
He was married to Kathleen Reynolds of Bound Brook, NJ, in 1964. They had three daughters together and resided in Martinsville, NJ. They divorced in 1979. He married his second wife, Patricia Johnson of New Providence, New Jersey and South Portland, in 1987, and moved to Maine full time in 1996. They spent the last 25 winters in Florida, and the last ten in their home in Sarasota. He is survived by his wife Patricia, three daughters: Kimberley Knittel and her husband Guy Larkin of Oakland, California; Linda Knittel, and Amy Knittel and her husband Dziugas Radzius, all of Portland, Oregon; step-daughters Jane Sleeper and her husband Breece of Biddeford, and Tricia Bezanson and her husband Mark of Frenchtown, New Jersey; brothers Harry Jr. (Skip) and Gary of NJ and Douglas of Florida, and seven grandchildren: Breece and
India Sleeper of Maine, Beatrix and Dashiell Larkin of California, Cassius Adams and Clyde and Faye Radzius of Oregon.
