Since Professor Richard Knopf announced he is retiring in May from Arizona State University, he has often been asked what he’s going to do once he officially departs.

“Cry for the next 20 years,” he said with a chuckle, “because I love this job so much.” Professor Richard Knopf (right) reacts to a commemorative plaque in honor of his retirement in May at the April 12 inaugural Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU Night of Excellence alongside Tracy Grewe, OLLI at ASU business operations manager. Knopf served 37 years on the faculty of what today is the School of Community Resources and Development and 13 years as OLLI at ASU director. Photo by Mark J. Scarp/ASU Download Full Image

But the job he speaks of has been far from singular. Knopf has worn a rack full of hats in the nearly 37 years since he arrived at ASU to teach community development, leisure studies, human services and other subjects in what is now called the School of Community Resources and Development.

Soon, he will have little time to lament, even if he really wanted to. Knopf’s ambitious post-retirement strategy reflects the energy and enthusiasm of an impressively active career.

During his tenure, Knopf served in college and university administration, as ASU associate vice provost for research for ASU’s West campus and as associate dean of what is now called the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, where the School of Community Resources and Development is based. Since 2004 he has been director of Partnership for Community Development, which helps form multisector partnerships to advance life-quality issues in local and global communities.

He once took a year’s leave from ASU to serve as a loaned executive for the Valley of the Sun United Way fundraising campaign. And at ASU, he managed external investments of more than $5.2 million — donations from large businesses, funding from government agencies and contributions from charitable foundations — in centers he directed.

But Knopf is best known for the years he served as director of the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning’s program at ASU, or OLLI at ASU. He has been a tireless advocate for older adults continuing education, social engagement and community impacts through transformative, lifelong learning experiences.

Every year in over 300 online and in-person courses, OLLI at ASU members, as its students are called, explore a wide variety of educational experiences representing the broad spectrum of academic disciplines across ASU. Knopf has guided the ASU program since he became director in 2010, having co-founded it more than a decade earlier.

Getting 'into the DNA of universities’

To hear Knopf speak, it’s plain that as a professor emeritus, he doesn’t intend to see his light diminish, not by a single watt.

“My passion and ASU’s mission have always been woven together. It’s invigorating, and it’s common sense as to why we are in this place,” Knopf said. “The reality of retirement is that it sharpens my zeal to contribute in ways I have not yet been able to. I will continue mentoring, carrying on impactful research on the dynamics of abundant aging, and advocating for better integration of older adults into the teaching and research lifeblood of universities.”

Knopf said he wants to be a spokesperson for the ASU core value of lifelong learning and fueling the growth of older adults on a national and global scale.

“ASU’s service portfolio in that regard is so much richer than other universities. I want to convey the power of that core value of ASU — catalyzing and mirroring ASU’s commitment to older adults to the national and global academic community.”

Not all universities are as age-friendly as ASU, he said.

“Most universities really have neither passion nor programming for the vast array of needs of people over 30 or 40. ASU has one of the best practices that focuses on universal learning — providing opportunities for all, regardless of age, available resources, lifestyle, race, ethnicity, gender identity, and intellectual and physical disabilities,” he said. “My plan is to lift up the possibilities of universal learning that call for the centrality of older adults at other universities in all aspects of scholarship, teaching and service. I will be working hard to co-create innovative curricula that are tailored for post-retirement older adults. In terms of unleashing human capacities, the potential is astonishing.”

‘Very human centered’ in connections with others

Watts College Dean and President’s Professor Cynthia Lietz said she remembers meeting Knopf nearly 20 years ago, when she began teaching at ASU as a social work professor.

“His spirit of service, commitment to student success and passion for community development was contagious even back then,” Lietz said. “Since then, his ability to inspire others has continued to positively influence our work and learning environments across the Watts College for decades. We are fortunate for his years of impactful service.”

School of Community Resources and Development Director and Professor Christine Buzinde praised Knopf’s “phenomenal work” at OLLI at ASU and in many other organizations and institutions.

“He will be greatly missed, in part because of his intellectual dexterity that has allowed him to contribute to multiple areas of scholarship, whether it is parks and recreation or tourism, but also community development,” she said.

Buzinde said Knopf’s career has been about ensuring that knowledge is not only for knowledge’s sake, but for assisting communities to become better places to live, work and play.

“His community development work is unparalleled. He is an individual who is very human-centered in his connection with others,” she said. “All who encounter him will recall the generosity in which he connects with people, the compassion with which he engages with them, but also the meaningfulness he interjects into his conversations with them.”

Professor and former ASU Provost Mark Searle called Knopf “an outstanding colleague, mentor to numerous graduate students, (an) excellent teacher and scholar and, most importantly, one of the warmest people I know.”

Searle recognized Knopf as a thought leader in his work on aging and deepening understanding of the importance lifelong learning has for a vibrant later life.

Steve Thaxton is executive director of the Osher Foundation National Resource Center, which is the convening entity for the network of 125 OLLIs across the United States. He noted that Knopf co-founded what is today one of the largest and most impactful lifelong learning institutes in the country.

“He took it through its growing pains and progression to a highly successful institute — in many arenas, modeling to the Osher Network just how an OLLI can successfully serve a large metropolitan area with its vast and diverse communities,” said Thaxton, who noted that Knopf accomplished these goals while serving simultaneously as a professor and a center director.