CAPE-KILL FOUNDER DEAD AT 76

His license plate read "BBQ WOW," a slogan that captured Charles E. Knote's enthusiasm not just for barbecue but for life.

Knote, 76, died Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1998. He was founder of Cape-Kil Pest Control and active in the community.

Friends may call Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Chapel. Memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church with the pastor, the Rev. Brendan Dempsey, officiating.

"There is no question that he gave a lot to the Cape Girardeau community," said Dr. Fred Goodwin, a retired Southeast Missouri State University professor. "He was a man of great energy, and he gave of that energy in an unselfish way."

Goodwin worked with Knote in the Community Concerts Association.

"He was extremely interested in quality music for the community and worked extraordinarily hard for many years with the Community Concerts Association," Goodwin said. "His contribution to classical music and the cultural climate that it provided in Cape Girardeau is immeasurable."

Knote served as president of the Cape Girardeau Community Concerts Association. He received the organization's Golden Lyre award in 1979.

Goodwin said Knote went to great lengths to make the people he met feel at ease wherever he was. "There were no pretenses with him," said Goodwin.

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner said of Knote, "He would always shoot straight with you on anything."

Mehner worked with Knote on the chamber's annual barbecue contest. "Charlie held classes, trained judges and taught people how to barbecue," he said. "Obviously he will be missed."

Mehner grew up in the same neighborhood with Knote. "His son and I were in the same class," he said.

"Theirs was definitely a neighborhood house," Mehner said. "They did what they could to make everyone feel extremely comfortable."

Visitors to the Knote home were often treated to a plate of food fresh from the grill.

Knote's barbecue talent want known throughout the Midwest. He and his wife, Ruth, were both certified judges for the nation's largest barbecue contest, the American Royal in Kansas City. They also judged "Memphis in May" and other contests across the country.

Five years ago Knote put his expertise into print with his wife, Ruth, when they wrote "Barbecuing and Sausage Making Secrets." The book has sold across the United State and in foreign countries.

Knote worked with the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce on a number of projects and committees, but was especially committed to its Agriculture Committee. He was named the Friend of Agriculture in 1972. Knote established the chamber award, "Ensign in Girardot's Navy," given to those who served the community well.

When Chateau Girardeau was formed in Cape Girardeau, Knote served on its first board as first vice president. He helped guide construction to completion and saw the facility opened.

On Sunday mornings he could be found outside First Presbyterian Church welcoming worshipers and helping them to the door. He served as both elder and deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church and later at First Presbyterian. He had attended a meeting of the deaconate on Tuesday night.

Professionally, Knote was known for his work in pest control. He served in 1972 as president of Pi Chi Omega, the national pest-control fraternity.

In 1950, Knote established Cape-Kil Pest Control, 33 N. Frederick, and opened a pesticide formulating plant, Kem-Pest Laboratories, where he manufactured 153 chemical products. He closed the formulation plant in 1979.

Knote and his daughter Elizabeth attended the Purdue Pest Control Technology conferences annually for many years. He retired in 1986, and she has operated Cape-Kil since.

Knote was born Feb. 6, 1921, in Greenfield, Ind., son of Charles E. and Eva Keisure Knote. He grew up on a swine farm at Dunkirk, Ind., and worked on the farm with his father.

After graduating from high school at Dunkirk, he studied at Purdue University, where he earned a degree in agricultural economics. He also studied entomology, In 1943, following graduation, he returned to work on the farm with his father.

He soon applied for Officer Candidate School in the Navy and took his training at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in New York, graduating as an ensign. He was assigned to a destroyer, the U.S.S. McKean, on which he served in the Pacific until World War II ended.

At the end of the war, Knote was offshore in Japan, not far from Hiroshima. He visited the city before his ship returned to the states. "It made a great impression on him," Ruth Knote said.

After leaving the service, Knote was employed by the Hudson Mfg. Co., in Chicago, and then Sentinel Laboratories in Springfield, Ill., as a pest-control formulator.

While working for Sentinel, he studied at the Center for Disease Control in Rodent Biology. It centered on diseases associated with rodents and rodent-control technology.

He moved to Cape Girardeau in 1948 to work in pest control for the late J.C. Logan. After six months, Knote bought the company, which later was developed into Cape-Kil.

Knote and Ruth Alice Rueseler were married Oct. 7, 1950, at Trinity Lutheran Church by the Rev. Paul Krone of Alabama.

Knote is survived by his wife; four daughters, Barbara Head of Denver, Colo., Nancy Evenden of Pasadena, Calif., Elizabeth Knote of Cape Girardeau, and Patricia Knote of Indianapolis, Ind; a son, Richard Knote of Knoxville, Tenn.; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Knote was a member of Tyrian Lodge 551, AF and AM, Springfield, Ill., and was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason. He held an honorary doctorate from the University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, Ark.