Former brewpub owner dies a hero in Colo. fire

A toast tonight to honor Gordon Knight, former co-owner of the Wolf Tongue Brewpub in Nederland, Colorado, who died a hero on Tuesday. Knight was the third person claimed by the Big Elk Fire, near Rocky Mountain National Park, a toll which has shaken Front Range residents. Many of us visited Wolf Tongue while it was open. He was also involved in the Estes Park Brewpub, and the Twisted Pine and High Country microbrewries in Boulder. Among those interviewed in the article below is our good friend Jim Parker, Knight's former business partner at Wolf Tongue, and before that on the staff of the American Homebrewers Association. Parker is himself regarded as somewhat of a hero, for his brave and ultimately successful battle against cancer. The following article appears on the front page of today's edition of the Boulder Daily Camera, and may also be seen online at http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/mtn_towns_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2428_12997… Roger Deschner rogerd(a)uic.edu ------ begin forwarded text ---------- The Daily Camera, Boulder, Colorado Pilot's father: 'He was my great hero' By Justin George and Christine Reid, Camera Staff Writers August 1, 2002 They say Gordon Knight veered his doomed helicopter away from firefighters on the ground as one last selfless act. If he had lived, friends said, he wouldn't have taken any credit. He rarely did. At home, he kept his Great American Beer Festival Gold medals - honors that breweries customarily turn into television commercials - in a sock drawer. During the Vietnam War, he earned a Purple Heart flying helicopter missions, something his father never knew. "He never told me that," said Knight's father, Leonard Knight. "He never did brag much." Friends, relatives, business partners and firefighters said much the same about Knight, the 52-year-old Boulder pilot killed Tuesday when his Lama helicopter crashed five miles south of Estes Park while fighting the Big Elk fire. When his aircraft was in trouble, instead of setting it straight down where two crews of firefighters were working, Knight steered away to avoid endangering their lives, said Marc Mullenix, Boulder Wildland Fire Division chief. "That's just the kind of guy he was," Mullenix said. Knight was born and raised on a cattle farm near Scottsbluff, Neb., where he was a state-champion wrestler. He joined the Army and flew scout missions and troops into battle during the Vietnam War. "He was my great hero," his father said. "He was my best friend." Later, Gordon Knight flew tourists in Hawaii. He also worked as a commercial pilot in places such as Indonesia and Africa. He was the first pilot for Life Flight rescue service in Des Moines, Iowa, said Michael Whipp, a 32-year-friend and business partner, who first met Knight taking a physical for the Army. Knight met his wife, Susan, while shuttling near-death victims from car wrecks to hospitals in Des Moines. She was an onboard nurse, Whipp said, and the couple later worked for Flight for Life in Denver. Knight began fighting wildfires about 26 years ago and at one time co-owned a business with Whipp that contracted helicopters to the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies battling wildfires. He was known for his proficiency in dropping buckets of water with great accuracy, firefighters said. Since June 1, he logged more than 200 hours fighting fires, including the Hayman fire, Colorado's largest ever. He was directly credited with saving homes from the Million Fire near South Fork in the Rio Grande National Forest in Rio Grande County. When not fighting fires, Knight made award-winning beer. He won three gold medals for the beers Renegade Red, Twisted Amber and Coffee Porter at three different breweries he co-owned over the years. "He was one of the finest brewers in the country," said friend Jim Parker, who co-owned the Wolf Tongue Brewery in Nederland with Knight in 1998 and 1999. Parker entered Knight's Coffee Porter in the Great American Beer Festival in Denver after Knight would not. He won gold. When Parker faced cancer more than two years ago, Knight borrowed beer-making equipment and re-made a beer the pair had sold in Nederland called Mr. Hoppy. Knight sold the batch, renamed Sir Hoppy, in the Denver area and gave $2,000 of the proceeds to his ailing friend. He never told Parker about his plan beforehand. "He just does not want to take any credit for anything, ever," said Parker, who now lives in Oregon. Parker remembers Knight dipping into his pockets and giving employees advances they never had to pay back. That was a surprising act for a frugal businessman who "could make a dollar scream" when he ran the Twisted Pine Brewery in Boulder, said majority owner Bob Baile. But, Baile said, Knight was a generous man outside of work expenses. He once drove almost 150 miles to the Royal Gorge in southern Colorado every Thursday during a summer to take over an injured race-car driver's day job flying weekend tours over the scenic chasm. He gave the salary to his friend's wife. "It was always someone else first," said Baile, recalling Knight's anger when Baile framed the gold medal for Twisted Pine's Twisted Amber and hung it with Knight's name in the brewery's entrance. But he was as careful and meticulous a businessman as he was a brewer, Baile said. "His whole life was conducted by the book," he said, a sentiment echoed by firefighters. Friends and firefighters were not surprised that Knight's last words came over the radio quietly and calmly: "Helicopter going down." A public memorial service honoring Knight will be at 5 p.m. Friday at Planet Bluegrass, 500 W. Main St., in Lyons. Camera Staff Writer Greg Avery contributed to this report. Contact Justin George at (303) 473-1359 or georgej(a)dailycamera.com. Copyright 2002, The Daily Camera. All Rights Reserved.