Keith C. Knapp passed from this life on November 27 ^th , 2019, surrounded by his family and friends, in Riverside, California. Born in Wichita, Kansas, on July 28 ^th , 1950, Keith was the first son of William H. and Jane L. Knapp (nee Keith).

Keith went to Iowa State University where he earned a B.S. degree in Economics in 1972. He then joined the military and served for two years, being stationed in West Germany for part of his duty. Following an honorable discharge he returned to school and earned a PhD from the College of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in, specializing in resource and environmental economics.

After earning his PhD, in 1980 Keith accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Riverside, where he spent the entirety of his career conducting research on irrigation management, salinity and drainage problems in the San Joaquin Valley, renewable resource management with an emphasis on groundwater, agricultural markets (grain reserves and perennial crops), and the implications of exhaustible resources for economic growth. He retired as a Full Professor in 2019. Over his distinguished career, Keith published many scholarly articles. In 2002, he and co-authors were awarded the Journal Article of the Year award from the Western Agricultural Economics Association for an article titled, "The Microeconomics of Irrigation with Saline Water", while in 2006 he was awarded the Quality of Research Discovery Award from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association for an article he co-authored titled, "Estimating Intertemporal Preferences for Natural Resource Allocation." He also was known as an excellent teacher, mentor, friend, and colleague. His friends and colleagues know him as a very caring person who always pursued the truth and looked for practical and logical solutions to tough problems, and as a dedicated researcher with original and independent thoughts but one who would listen carefully to others views. Outside of his professional life, Keith's passions included skiing, windsurfing, and star-gazing/astronomy.

Keith is survived by his brothers Kirk O. Knapp and Kevin B. Knapp, and his sister Julie E. Steelman.

Funeral services will be held 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, December 8, 2019, at Jones Funeral Home in Burlington, Kansas. Burial will follow in Graceland Cemetery in Burlington. A memorial will be held in Riverside, California, in January.