In his time, Knowles has interacted with thousands of students and other staff members. Registrar Sharon Kunkel, who has been with the Institute for 25 years, noted Knowles’ enthusiasm. “He is ever positive, ever upbeat, and truly committed to making the Institute one of the best in the world,” she said. Current Dean of Students Mark Smith was the associate dean of Minority Student Affairs while Knowles was the dean of students. He gave praise to Knowles’ work in developing the diversity on campus and his commitment to students: “Someone with that much experience at such an institution … he’s a great teacher and an even better mentor.”

President Shirley Ann Jackson recognized Knowles in front of the Student Senate yesterday, acknowledging his service and saying, “He’s worked for a long time to improve the quality of student life. When I came, I recognized that he was a man that had a lot of talent, a lot of dedication, a lot of focus, and really understood the Institute, and could evolve with the times, so that’s why I asked him to be vice president of student life. I feel very fortunate to have him as part of my leadership team.” Grand Marshal Carlos Perea added, “He’s done a great service to the Institute. We love him.”

Knowles’ 30-year career has spanned a large portion of RPI history. Back when Knowles joined RPI in March of 1977, George M. Low ’47 was the president of the Institute, the Folsom Library was nearly a year old, and the Jonsson Engineering Center was barely five months old. At that time, Knowles joined RPI as the assistant dean of students and foreign student advisor. In that role, Knowles provided support services to minority and foreign students and acted as the responsible officer reporting to the national Office of Immigration and Naturalization Services.

After two years in that role, a new office was created, which is known as the Office of Minority Student Affairs today, and Knowles was named dean of that office. In that role, Knowles established a learning center for minority students. The endeavor was so popular, according to Knowles, that many non-minority students asked to participate and receive help. However, such non-minority students had to pay a fee for the services since the office couldn’t support the entire campus on its budget.

In 1983, Knowles was appointed the Dean of Students, and one of his first initiatives was to expand the learning center, making it available to all students. Knowles said he considered that accomplishment to be “one of the hallmarks of [his] appointment.” During this period, Kunkel remembers Knowles would refer to himself as the “mean dean,” one of his duties being to administer the student judicial process.

In 1991, Knowles chaired the committee responsible for architecting RPI’s first Relationship Statement, which defined the terms of the relationship between the Institute and the fraternities and sororities. In creating that document, Knowles recalls that it was different from other institutions who rewrote their codes of conduct and mandated the changes to their greek organizations. “We ended up taking those documents and throwing them in the circular file,” Knowles said. “That’s not the direction we’re headed in ... We’ve got a pretty good system and what we want to do is make it even better.” Knowles included greek organizations and alumni in the process to develop the relationship statement; “I had no idea that what I was doing would be viewed nationally … as a ground-breaking approach,” he said.

In 2000, Knowles was appointed the interim vice president of student life, the interim title being dropped in 2001. During this period, Knowles stated that, “without question, my most significant accomplishment was the establishment of the Office of the First-Year Experience.” When Knowles was appointed vice president, the freshman-sophomore retention rate was 91 percent. Since then, the rate has risen to 94 percent. “We’re not done yet—our goal is to get up over 96 percent,” Knowles said. “It’s a change in the paradigm,” he said regarding the support of freshmen in their first year. Knowles considers this the period in which he has been able to produce the most substantial results with the Institute.

Knowles has still found time for the arts, which he considers very important. As a professional musician, Knowles appears in a recent television advertisement for the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. In 2000, he added another title, adjunct associate professor in the Department of Arts, where he teaches a course every fall semester called Introduction to Afro-Cuban Percussion. Said Knowles, “There are students who took my class from 2000 forward who actually continue to study with me.” Knowles believes that the arts are a very valuable part of a student’s life.

One of the anecdotes Knowles offered about his tenure at RPI centered on commencement. For 11 years, while he was Dean of Students, Knowles was also responsible for the planning and execution of the commencement ceremony. As students would cross the stage and shake the hand of either the president or the chairman of the board, they would walk down a ramp and get their picture taken. In the excitement of graduating, however, many students ran right past the photo area. The solution was for Knowles to stand at the top of the ramp, shake the graduate’s hand, and remind them to stop at the bottom of the ramp. “I wound up, with that tradition, everybody’s hand, more hands than the president or the chairman,” Knowles said. “It became a tradition for me to stand up there.” Knowles said that, since that time, he has not missed a commencement.