Edgar Knauff, founder of a Baltimore construction company and a World War II veteran, died Jan. 13 of kidney failure at his York, Pa., home. He was 92.
Mr. Knauff, son of a construction superintendent and a homemaker, was born on 22nd Street and raised on Southern Avenue.
A 1936 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, he studied engineering at the Johns Hopkins University.
During World War II, he served as a captain with the Army's 373rd Field Artillery Battalion in Europe, earning the Bronze Star.
"He didn't talk much about the war," said his son, John E. Knauff of Perry Hall.
After the war, Mr. Knauff returned to Baltimore and worked for several construction companies before establishing Edgar Knauff Inc. Construction Co. in 1971.
He retired as owner in 1991.
During his professional career, Mr. Knauff oversaw the construction of the upper-deck expansion at the old Memorial Stadium, and his firm worked on the construction of Harborplace, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, the IKEA store in White Marsh, and the Amtrak station at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, his son said.
He was a trustee of the Carpenters Joint Apprenticeship for 18 years and had been a director of Associated Contractors of America. He had also been a member of the American Concrete Institute and was a former president of the Maryland Association of General Contractors.
The former resident of Medford Road in Northwood had lived in York for the past 30 years, where he was a member of Eastminster Presbyterian Church.
He was a former member of St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northeast Baltimore.
For years, Mr. Knauff enjoyed setting up an annual Christmas garden.
His wife of 37 years, the former Gertrude M. Lorenz, died in 1980.
Services were held Jan. 19.
Also surviving are his wife of 29 years, the former Evelyn G. Krone; a daughter, Nancy Kreek of Cambridge; a brother, Hugh P. Knauff of Neavitt, Talbot County; a stepson, Richard Lewis of Baltimore; a stepdaughter, Jane Gerhold of Enola, Pa.; three grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and a step-great-granddaughter.