Dr. Lawrence and Kathryn Knight Endowed Scholarship
EST. 2020
Please address your letter to:
Dr. and Mrs. Knight
Lawrence L. Knight, M.D. grew up on Idaho farms in Sandpoint and Aberdeen. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Idaho. Dr. Knight entered the UW School of Medicine in 1954, as the school was beginning its ninth year. During his first year, he lived in the Phi Chi medical fraternity, just across the canal from the UW Marine Biology Center. Early in his second year, he married Kaye and she began her teaching career at Ft. Lawton School. The Knights have five children.
Dr. Knight described the academic challenges offered by the school as a “cut above” what he and his classmates experienced as undergraduates. During medical school, he had the privilege to get to know many of the founding members of the faculty. He credits these pioneering faculty members with setting the highest academic standards which continue to this day.
Through a disciplined lifestyle and jobs including managing an apartment complex in the University district and Kaye running a small child care service — Dr. Knight graduated from medical school debt free in 1958.
Dr. Knight completed his general internship at Denver General Hospital and his pathology residency in the Denver VA/University of Colorado complex. He spent two years as assistant chief and chief of pathology at the Oklahoma City VA and then arrived in Boise, Idaho where he spent an interesting 41 years in a mix of community hospital, academic VA and commercial laboratory activities. He “retired” in April 2011 but continues to find medicine a major focus of interest.
Dr. Knight served for eight years as an alternate/delegate to the American Medical Association, 12 years as IMA representative to the United States Pharmacopeia, and six years on the advisory board to the Idaho National Laboratory, one of the worldwide leaders in nuclear technology. He served over 20 years on alumni, foundation and college boards at the University of Idaho and for most of that period also chaired the scholarship trust of the Idaho Medical Association.
Dr. Knight said that opportunities to interact with UW students and residents in the Boise VA program, and to become involved in a number of medical activities at the local, state, and national level were especially rewarding. He said that his UW education fully equipped him to meet the challenges of these activities.