Remembering Phil Knighton, 1942-2022

Phil Knighton, 1960-2022

Editor’s Note: Phil’s wife Chris values talking with his friends. If you would like to call her, check with Marilyn (mbellert@niu.edu) for a phone number. Meanwhile, we are collecting remembrances of Phil. Send yours and we will add it here.

Skip Granger. My parents and Phil’s were good friends, and Phil and I always visited at reunions. At our 55th reunion in 2010, he hosted Mary Ann, Dan Tontz, and me at his unfinished new mansion and car barn.  Phil’s fate had changed with the price of oil and his second wife’s serious illness, and he questioned whether he could keep the cars and save the house (he had put an elevator in it for her).  Having played the venture game in Silicon Valley for 50 years, I was quite familiar with his plight. Phil’s car collection was quite impressive.  He was especially proud of his Jones 660. 

Skip sent the following clip from an article about Phil and the Jones 660.

 “One of the most historic and uniquely Wichita displays at the swap meet is a 1919 Jones Six five-passenger touring car. It had a top speed of 60 mph. It has a shiny red body with black fenders and running boards.  The auto is one of eight known surviving Jones cars built in Wichita from 1914 to 1921, said owner Phil Knighton.”

“Years ago, he bought it from a man in Corpus Christi, who got it from someone who left it covered behind a house in Miami, Oklahoma.”  “It took four to five years to restore it,” said Knighton, a walking encyclopedia of Jones’ car history. He became fascinated with Jones cars in 1960 after writing a college research paper about the Jones company. Back then, Knighton said, ‘I never thought I’d own one.'”

Below, Phil and his 1911 Model T Ford. From left, Jack Kleinheksel, Phil the driver, Eric Knorr, and Gene Carter. Phil commented that while most of the “cool” guys were driving ’50s hot rods, he was tooling around in antique cars he had restored himself. A photographer for The Messenger spotted Phil and the Model T in a parade and persuaded him to recruit friends for a photo.

Phil’s memoir for this website, What a Ride It’s Been, tells about his passion for antique cars as well as more about his life. You can see photos of his well-polished cars in Phil Knighton’s Antique Car Collection available on the Gallery page. Learn more about Phil in this article: Profile of Phil Knighton, in the Kansas Geological Society Journal, KGS BULLETIN (kgslibrary.com) and from https://prabook.com/web/philip.knighton/1190045.

The following summary of Phil’s life is drawn from the publications linked above and from Phil’s own writings.

Phil Knighton was born in Tulsa in 1942 and died in Wichita on February 11, 2022, after an extended illness. After graduation from East High in 1960, he attended Wichita U, where he earned a BA and then an MA in Geology. He worked in the oil and gas field until the business reach a low point, forcing him to look elsewhere. He accepted a position teaching geology at Washburn University in Topeka and proceeded to earn a law degree. With the oil and gas business still depressed, he hung out his shingle in Wichita, taking everything from DUIs and divorces to, eventually, oil and gas-related cases. Eventually, he worked for the Federal Bureau of Land Management managing leases of all oil, gas, copper, and other resources. Along the way, he sited his own wells, handled oil and gas legal cases, and provided expert witness testimony. He practiced law for 38 years before retiring.

Phil’s final year of law school was a stressful time. He worked weekends at the State Highway Department Research Lab, late afternoon hours inspecting pier borings for new buildings, making coffee at 5:00 a.m. in the student lounge, teaching evening geology courses at Washburn, and managing the Washburn Law Clinic during the day.

Below, Phil and Chris are showing off a 1905 Maxwell.