Matt D. McKnight, III obituary
On May 6, 2019, Colonel Matt Doran McKnight III, of Murfreesboro, TN passed away at age 77.
Born December 17, 1941 in Rockwood, Tennessee, Matt or “Mike” as he was known to friends and family, was proud to be from a long line of McKnights who have lived in Tennessee since before it was a state.
Colonel McKnight served his country as a 37-year veteran of the United States Army and Tennessee Army National Guard. He was stationed in Korea in the early 1960s and served two tours of active combat in Vietnam in 1967 and 1969/70. After being wounded in combat in 1967, he trained to become a rescue helicopter pilot and returned to the jungles of Vietnam to pull countless men out of danger in his last year of combat.
After Vietnam, he lived in Fort Knox, KY where he met and married Georgia Marmaduke on July 23, 1972. They were stationed in Fulda, Germany in 1974 and toured Europe in their orange and white Volkswagen camper van for three years before returning to Murfreesboro in 1977 to settle near family and friends.
Matt worked for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency for 22 years and assisted Tennesseans in need in his work responding to all manners of natural disasters and crises.
Because of his emergency planning experience with Tennessee’s nuclear power plants, the Department of Defense sent Matt into the post-Soviet state of Bulgaria as a military advisor for nuclear safety and emergency planning.
Colonel McKnight retired in October 1997 as the 4th Commander of Tennessee’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Matt was a lifelong member of the Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Murfreesboro. He had a passion for model aviation and model trains. In his retirement, he could be found in his shop building P-51s and loved to show children and those who were young at heart how to fly aerobatic stunts. He was known for his love of travel and painting and crisscrossed the globe in his retirement with Georgia, seeking out adventure where ever he could find it.
He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Georgia; his sons Matt Doran McKnight, IV and Timothy James McKnight and his wife Brook; his daughters, Molly McKnight Amador and her husband Alvaro and Georgeann Eleni McKnight; four grandchildren, Richard Andrew and his wife Taylor, Alex James, Ayden Joseph, and Lillian Beatriz; and one great-grandchild, Rhorie Adelane.
The McKnight Family thanks the kind and caring staff at Adam’s Place for making The Colonel comfortable in his last days.
Visitation with the family will be Thursday, May 9, 2019 from 4:00pm until 7:00pm at Woodfin Memorial Chapel. A rosary will be held at 7pm. Funeral services will be held Friday, May 10, 2019 at 11:00am at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Evergreen Cemetery with full Military Honors.
Memorials may be made to the St. Rose School Tuition Assistance Program, 1601 N Tennessee Blvd, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.
An online guestbook is available for the family at www.woodfinchapel.com. Woodfin Memorial Chapel (615) 893-5151
