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October 4, 2000
Dam caretaker keeps spirits high
By MATT COOPER
©The Register-Guard - Used With Permission |
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Photos: NICOLE DeVITO/The Register Guard |
Lloyd Knox leads a spirited tour of third graders on Monday
from McCornack Elementary in Eugene. |
LEABURG - Long after cancer carries him away, after a company and a community
come to terms with the death of the man who tended the Leaburg Dam, one image
of Lloyd Knox will remain.
It will be Knox showcasing a silly talent: With the nozzle of a pressurized
air hose wedged into the "V" of two fingers, the 72-year-old Knox manipulates
air flow to play any number of songs.
It sounds like a duck playing a kazoo. Yet Knox performs while wearing an
expression that is equal parts sincerity and serenity, as if charming notes
from a dulcet flute, not a gas-station accessory.
This is a kid who forgot to grow up. No sense changing now.
Youthfulness has served Knox well for the 27 years the Eugene Water & Electric
Board has employed him, mostly as the caretaker of Leaburg Dam and adjoining
Water Board Park.
EWEB has received thousands of letters and comments extolling Knox for the
spirited school tours he has conducted of the dam (today he teaches the kids
of his earlier students).
As Knox mulled retirement in 1994, a neighbor gathered more than 100 signatures
from people who wanted him to continue in some capacity at the dam.
So EWEB designed a part-time role for him that enabled Knox to keep his passion,
the community to keep a treasured resource and the company to keep an irreplaceable
asset.
Said John Femal, EWEB community education coordinator: "I can't imagine having
another Lloyd."
Now everyone must do exactly that - imagine life without Knox. He was diagnosed
Aug. 31 with cancer of the pancreas and it has spread to his liver. He could
be gone in days, weeks or months, and he alone seems completely detached from
the prospect.
"I've had 72 pretty nice years. I have no complaint," Knox said this week,
his boyish face and twinkling eyes suggesting actor Kevin Spacey in 30 years. "The
word 'terminal' don't mean anything. It's vague. We're all terminal."
Better to focus on today, said Dawn Knox, Knox's wife of five years. She watched
from the house as her husband greeted a busload of third-graders Monday from
McCornack Elementary in Eugene.
"This is good for him," she said. "He comes to life."
While explaining the workings of Leaburg Dam, Knox might prankishly "trap" a
student alone in the control room. But he was just as animated while imparting
a lesson on hydroelectricity.
His presentation Monday - he powered a light bulb by running a coil of copper
wire past a powerful magnet - drew rapt attention from most of his waist-high
visitors.
"He personalizes the concept of electricity from water," teacher Mark Olson
said. "He's a natural teacher who teaches the kids on a level they can understand.
The light goes on."
The light went on for Knox 27 years ago. That's when the native Californian
fled the big-city life as a bus driver in Baltimore for the Northwest and a
job at EWEB in downtown Eugene.
He transferred to Leaburg Park in 1978. His title was "hydro utility worker
1'' but his job was caretaker. He gave tours, operated the dam, maintained
the nearby park and even directed traffic if one of the log trucks spilled
its load on the old hairpin curve by the dam.
He also kept an eye out for emergencies in the dam.
One late night four years ago, half the hillside flopped into the McKenzie
River upstream of the dam. Knox raced into the control room at 3 a.m., where
he fought to keep the dam open while 100- foot logs stacked up and hammered
away at it.
"I was sweating it out, smoke was coming out, the whole pier house was full
of smoke," Knox said.
Colleague Bob Lewis, who worked with Knox for 20 years at Leaburg Dam, remembered
another story. The two salvaged a stuffed porcupine from a garbage dump and
Knox put it to comical use at the park.
"When somebody would go into the restroom, he'd set the porcupine there, right
in the doorway, so you couldn't get out," Lewis said, chuckling. "He'd do it
to me, too - I jumped every time, and I knew what it was."
EWEB employees have reacted to Knox's condition as if he were a benevolent
grandfather.
Some have considered sending appropriate gestures of love and support; others,
upon hearing about the cancer diagnosis, simply broke down.
EWEB will honor Knox's request that his ashes be spread in the park. The utility
is also considering placing an appropriate memorial there.
"All I can say is, we're just all deeply saddened," said Everett Jordan, EWEB
generation manager. "It's still impacting the organization."
Luke Knox, one of Knox's five children, has drawn comfort from knowing that
his sadness is also shouldered by an entire community.
"That's very touching for me," he said. "To feel that someone else is kind
of sharing in the pain, you can kind of relate to that."
He and two brothers visited their father late last month. "We were able to
open up our emotions a little more," Luke Knox said, his voice catching. "A
lot more than we normally do."
Dawn Knox also is preparing herself. She and her husband met 17 years ago;
she is his second wife, and they consider each other best friends.
She is learning how to conduct the school tours, and how to say things the
way her husband says them so the children will understand: "All the wheels
give leverage to the motor, just like you can lift your dad's car up with a
jack. ..."
But there's no way to account for everything. Dawn Knox has no idea how to
play songs with a pressurized air hose. She can't duplicate her husband's easy
mastery of music; Lloyd Knox said he could come home from a movie theater and
play any song he'd just heard.
Instead, she watched her husband pensively, sharing the seat while he played
a vintage organ. He sang softly, his voice gently unfolding a song he'd written
for her:
Dawn Knox (right) listens while Lloyd, her husband of five years,
plays a vintage organ, and sings a song he wrote for her |
"I was sad and so unhappy/ I lost a loved one without
goodbye
And the pain of grief and sorrow/ all I could do was weep and cry
This is a good time to be living/we have a privilege this message
to bear
While we see this old world ending/we tell the people Christ's kingdom
is near." |
EWEB CUSTOMER COMMENTS ON LLOYD KNOX
"It was a pleasure to work with a person who obviously enjoys his job. You
have a real public relations gem in him." - 1987
"The tour conducted by Mr. Knox was the highlight of the day. His sense of
humor and ability to communicate with people of all ages are remarkable. His
respect for the environment makes him a wonderful EWEB representative." - 1990
"A man named Lloyd, a born teacher, gave a tour ... that fascinated the children
and adults. We all learned so much and we were exposed to a rare treat: true
joy in learning." - 1994
"In Japan, certain people who have special talents are designated national
treasures. If EWEB was a country, Lloyd Knox would be a national treasure." -
Undated
- Eugene Water & Electric Board
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