Community turns out for Knoch renaming celebration
JEFFERSON TWP — More than 2,000 residents of the newly-renamed Knoch School District turned out Wednesday, Aug. 24, evening to celebrate the switch from the South Butler County School District, including 99-year-old Mae Wise, whose grandfather was a cousin of the original family who owned the land.
The spry and bright-eyed nonagenarian was thrilled to be an honored guest at the celebration, as she fondly recalled the kind and generous Bill and Eva Knoch.
“I think the name change is a great idea, because Eva was a great lady,” Wise said of Knoch, who donated the land for the school in the 1950s.
Wise grew up next door to the property that is now the district's secondary campus, on her parents' dairy farm.
She recalled in her comments to those assembled in the parking lot near the high school gym that Bill Knoch was in the oil and gas industry, and that the couple lived beside the historic White Church at the end of Main Street in Saxonburg.
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