David Luther Kniss: a life remembered
An obituary,
with added reflections written by David’s four children

David L. Kniss, 85, of Sarasota, died at home on Sunday, April 12, 2020. David was born February 6, 1935 in Johnstown, PA, to Lloy Anson and E. Elizabeth (Luther) Kniss. 

The youngest of four children of a missionary family, David grew up near Dhamtari, India, where his family lived in the remote village of Mohadi. His formative early years were spent in India, dearly loving the land and people he called home, while also being an outsider. Navigating this tension would profoundly shape the remainder of his life and ministry.

After returning to the U.S. at age 7 he spent his remaining childhood and adolescence with his parents who continued a life of service, teaching, and ministry in various communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He attended Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, VA, and graduated from Lancaster Mennonite School in PA. He later took college and seminary classes at what is now Eastern Mennonite University.

On December 28, 1955 he married Esther Elnora Leaman, who survives. Together, David and Esther sacrificially served many Mennonite congregations and communities in both lay and pastoral ministry. After providing lay leadership in four Mennonite urban missions in Coatesville, PA and in Tampa, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, FL, David was ordained as pastor at Ashton Mennonite Church in Sarasota in 1968. This was the first of six congregations David served as pastor, with Esther as an active partner in ministry. The other five were Pine Creek Chapel (Arcadia); Trinity Chapel (Eustis); Ephrata (PA) Mennonite Church; Gulfport (MS) Mennonite Church; and Bahia Vista Mennonite (Sarasota). In addition, David was actively involved in planting new churches and in coaching and nurturing other church planters. He was dearly loved, and is still, to this day, by persons in all the communities he served.

As David’s children, we admire this deep and lasting mutual love between pastor and people. At the same time, we note a lifelong, loyal, yet complex relationship with the Mennonite church that deeply shaped his life, and impacted us children in different ways. As a boy, David himself grew up in a family that sacrificed nearly everything for the church and its mission, including their own social and financial stability, uprooting the family and moving often between cultures and communities to answer the call of God and the church. That was the life of our family, as well. This is not a value judgment about the church or our family, but it names what was.

There are 13 years between the oldest and youngest of us. During those years the four of us were born in four different communities in four different church mission contexts. In the early years Dad and Mom were immersed in their most high-demand and low-support mission efforts: first Tampa, where Fred was born; then Sarasota at Newtown, where Phil was born; then St. Pete, where Carl was born; then Sarasota at Ashton, where Sonya was born. It wasn’t until Ashton that Dad obtained the title of pastor, even though the prior 13 years were devoted to church ministry and mission, while running his own business and barely eking out a living wage. But in the 50s and 60s that was the Mennonite way—expect a lot of church leaders, but keep them humble by not putting them on a payroll or giving them recognition. We were all born during times of great change in the Mennonite world. The church (Big C) could almost be considered a member of the Kniss family, because its impact was so profound. All four of us have our own particular relationship with this family member. Some of us grew up more in the high-expectation era, some in the high-recognition era, when Dad’s ministry flourished in six churches in three states, and when he was more fully supported, recognized, and affirmed. 

In his retirement, after years of fruitful ministry, he came home, in so many ways, to this Sarasota congregation he loved and who loved him in return, and he continued to be who he was: Pastor Dave. It’s a testament to Dad and Mom’s unconditional love—both for us and for the church—that all four of us still love the “Big C” church, and are involved in church leadership in one form or another.

Dad’s experience as a missionary child from India who struggled to know where he fit into the church and community once he came back to this country, cast him in his lifetime role as something of an outsider with regard to systems of power. But it also gave him a tender heart toward those who found themselves as outsiders, for whatever reason. The first thing he would do when beginning to lead a church plant or revitalize an existing church, was to hit the streets and meet the neighbors. With no judgment or precondition, he extended himself and his heart toward those around him in the local community. He simply sought to be with them, learn to know them, and love them. This didn’t always endear him to the religious powers-that-be who were trying to protect the institution, but it always endeared him to his neighbors. 

Carl and Phil, who also became pastors, notice how this trait impacted their own way of being pastors. Carl notes, “So much of the way I live life and minister was ‘caught’ from Dad. Any pastoral effectiveness others have seen in me is a result of watching him live out his call and ‘tagging along’ in the communities he so deeply engaged outside the church walls.” Dad was passionate about his relationship with Jesus, and he simply sought to embody the character and love of Jesus in his daily life.

While he was devoted to the church, he was also devoted to his family, pouring into us an unwavering love, though each of us experienced it in a different way. As the last-born, and long-awaited girl in the family, Sonya says, “I found it an incredibly powerful gift to a young girl to never have to doubt her daddy’s love. Even into young adulthood, he would let me crawl into his lap for a warm hug and heart-to-heart talk. Those moments indelibly formed my understanding of my Father God’s love for me. It’s still the image in my mind’s eye when I cry out to God in my lowest points—my Father God holds me, comforts me, and counsels me into next steps. Dad’s wisdom, faith, encouragement, dry humor, love and constancy in my life are missed every day but I’m eternally grateful for the years and days I had him as mine.”

Our devoted mother Esther was, of course, the closest and longest-lasting recipient of the unconditional love of David Kniss. She writes, “Dave has been my forever friend and lover since first setting our eyes on each other as high school seniors in 1952, and through 64½ years of marriage.  He has been a stronghold in my life as we have walked together serving the Lord.”

Dave also loved and respected the natural world, taking every opportunity to be in the woods or by the river, often taking family or friends with him and sharing his abundant knowledge about plants and animals. He had a lifelong love of fishing. While he relished the occasional trophy catch, it was about being out in God’s creation. He often created pencil sketches of the scenes that surrounded him. His favorite place in the world was Myakka River State Park.

He treasured each family member—children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—and was present at important milestones with words and prayers of encouragement.

In addition to Esther, David is survived by us four children — Fred Kniss, and wife Rosalyn, of Harrisonburg, VA; Phil Kniss, and wife Irene, Harrisonburg; Carl Kniss, and wife Rochelle, of Chambersburg, PA; and Sonya Miller, and husband Ellis, of Myakka City, FL; one sister Esther, and husband Myron Augsburger of Harrisonburg; 11 grandchildren — Michael Kniss, Stephen Kniss, Andrea Stutzman, Sharon Kniss, Christina Reynolds, Katrina Kniss, Deanna Kniss, Stephanie Kniss, Nathan Miller, Kirstin Guaita, and Logan Miller, plus 5 of their spouses; and 5 great-grandchildren Eva and Evan Stutzman, Willow and Huck Reynolds, Jordan Kniss, and Luis Guaita, and one more on the way.

The David Kniss family who remain—all 31 of us—are all indebted to the love of God expressed through the love of this man, for who we are today. Thank you, God. And thank you, Dave, Dad, Grandpa, Great-grandpa.