Joseph Allen Knowles - Obituary

Joseph Allen Knowles passed away at home on Wednesday, September 1, 2021. Allen was born September 9, 1937 in Pocatello, Idaho to Joseph Henry and Rebecca Allen Knowles. He graduated from Pocatello High School and attended classes at Idaho State College, before serving for 2 years in the Southern States Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

He married Beth Wright in 1962, and they had two sons: Todd and Eric. They lived in California, where Allen managed several Kinney Shoes stores. They returned to Idaho in 1970, and lived in Boise and then Caldwell. During that time Allen sold motorcycles at Al Russell Sports Center and went on to manage Yamaha Sports Center. This was the beginning of his life-long love affair with motorcycles and racing. Allen and Beth divorced in 1974. He stayed in Caldwell, where he started a new job selling appliances and electronics for Sears. He continued with Sears for many years – ultimately transferring to the Boise store.

 In 1977, he met Zuriel Brown through the Church singles program. Their courtship over the year resulted in marriage on June 9, 1978. They merged their families, and Allen gained 3 children that he loved as if they had always been his: Cindy, Todd, and Lori. When Sears went through a restructuring, Allen found employment at Grover’s Pay & Pack, learning much about electrical, lighting, and plumbing. This allowed him to help family members complete home improvement projects, and ultimately led him to a job with the Facilities Management department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – where he worked until retirement. 

After retirement, Allen and Zuriel served a mission for their Church managing the Regional Family History Library – where they made many friends and blessed many lives. Allen’s service in the Church was lifelong, including service in 3 different bishoprics, several High Priest group leaderships, various youth callings, and as an early morning seminary teacher. 

Allen had several passions in life, but chief among them was his love of trains. He inherited this love from his father, who was a conductor with the Union Pacific. Reading about trains, watching videos about trains, building model trains, and visiting train depots and train museums were all a part of this love and hobby, something he joyfully shared with and passed on to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Another passion Allen had was for music, especially Jazz. He grew up with Stan Kenton and the Four Freshman, and later in life enjoyed Al Jarreau, Whitney Houston, and Gloria Estefan. He passed this love of music down to his children and on down to their children. Allen also loved sports of all kind, especially basketball. He loved to tell stories about the Idaho State teams of the 1950’s and their several trips to the NCAA tournament. When he moved to Boise in 1970, he became a Boise State fan, and attended many basketball and football games over the years. His other great hobby was his posterity. He and Zuriel were famous for their attendance at every possible performance, game, race, concert, blessing, baptism, graduation, marriage, and any other event that involved one of their children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren. 

Funeral services for Allen will be held at 11:00 am Saturday, September 11, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 8620 Goddard Rd, Boise. Allen is survived by his wife of 43 years, Zuriel; his sister Shirley Franks; his children, Cindy (Vardell) Curtis, Todd (Pamela) Brown, Todd (Lisa) Knowles, Lori (Scott) Walker, and Eric Knowles; 23 grandchildren; and 28 great-grandchildren.

(Todd Knowles, Todd Brown, Eric Knowles, Cindy Brown Curtis, Lori Brown Walker)
(Zuriel Ruth Elvin + Joseph Allen Knowles) 

-missing Cindy in the picture on the left-

I made Grandma and Grandpa take these pictures one Christmas and still just love them. 

Here are a handful of other pictures of us with our Grandpa Knowles over the past couple of years. 

In October, I gave a Sacrament Meeting talk about the blessings that come from listening to the invitations we receive from the prophet and acting upon his counsel. As part of that talk, I included this story that I paraphrased using what I could remember of the talk my Uncle Todd Knowles gave at Grandpa's funeral. It was impactful to me when I heard it. It makes me grateful for the small choices that Grandpa made and mindful of my own small choices and the impact they can have: 

 

"It was the late 1970s and my Grandfather was recently divorced and had two teenage sons, one who was living with him. He was understandably having a difficult time and was trying to navigate the challenges in his life alone. He wasn’t really invested in the Gospel and he and his son were drifting amid the turbulence in their life. My uncle shared that one particular weekend, they made the effort to attend Stake Conference, and as they were there the speaker gave an invitation to read a particular set of scriptures together as a family and talk about it during Family Home Evening. My uncle recalled, “I remember thinking to myself, ‘I wonder who will do that, because I know that we won’t.” But later that day, my Grandfather awkwardly approached my uncle and said that “maybe they could start having family home evening on Monday nights together and maybe even read the scriptures and discuss them”. My uncle, caught off guard – protested “But what about Monday night football!?” My grandpa responded, “Yes, I’ve thought about that. We can read the scriptures from 6:30-7 and watch football after that.” That first Monday was slightly uncomfortable as they pulled out their scriptures and two red marking pencils, but as they read the words of Christ, together, something happened in that tiny basement apartment they called home. The words spoke to them and a tiny change of heart was sparked. The next week, more scriptures and that spark of change steadily grew to a flaming fire of testimony for both my grandfather and my uncle. Only a short few years later- my Grandfather met my Grandmother who was also divorced with three children at home – one of which was my mother. Together my grandparents lived for and loved the Lord. Those ripples extend through my mother, to me, and down to my own children. I will be forever grateful for that Stake Conference speaker and for the man my grandfather was, who decided to listen and follow even when life seemed uncertain and ended up finding footing on a foundation of love and truth."

I also shared a thought in a Stake Primary Meeting about Ministering based on a story that Grandpa told me that last week when I was able to sit by his bedside: 

"My Grandpa just passed away this past week and I had the opportunity to go and sit with him for several days as he came home to be on hospice. He and my Grandma sat and reminisced about several stories, but one story they told me stood out among the others. Most of the stories were from their life or memories of their kids and grandkids but this story was about my Grandma as a primary teacher. My grandma taught primary for years and years and years through the last several decades of her life. (She just turned 88 and was only recently released from her primary class.) She told of how whenever she taught her class she would make a note of which children weren’t there and she would always go and drop off the coloring page or activity at their house. One family in particular never came to church but she repeatedly went and dropped that small paper off and told that boy that she was thinking of him. After the boy reached scouting age he started asking his parents if he could go to church and because they didn’t want him to go alone they started to attend with him. My grandparents spoke of specific tender mercies that the family experienced the first few weeks of church and how the family came to embrace the gospel and how it blessed their life. My grandparents were so grateful to have been a part of their story. I imagine the hundreds of primary coloring pages my 4’11” grandmother dropped off and the good that she spread by ministering to her primary children."