[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 7] [Senate] [Pages 8881-8883] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO DELFORD McKNIGHT Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Mr. Delford McKnight of Laurel County, KY, for his lifetime of contributions in business as well as his many years of public service to the State of Kentucky. Delford McKnight is the founder of McKnight & Associates, a successful industrial construction company that built and renovated numerous structures in Laurel and surrounding counties. Born in 1946, Mr. McKnight grew up on a small family farm 6 miles from London, KY. He attended Bush Elementary School and Bush High School, where he gained an interest in agriculture and construction. Taking classes in agriculture and woodworking, as well as other college prep classes, he earned the title ``Boy Most Likely to Succeed'' from his senior class. [[Page 8882]] After graduating high school, Delford went on to attend the University of Kentucky for 1 year before leaving to pursue a career in construction. In 1964, he married his first wife, Helen Owens McKnight. The couple moved to Lexington, where they ran a local Laundromat and managed an apartment complex. On the side, Delford also worked for a construction company. In 1965, the two moved back to their hometown, where Mr. McKnight took a job with the Hacker Brothers construction firm. Three years later, Delford opened his first construction business, McKnight Construction and Blueprint Company, in London, KY, today known as McKnight & Associates. This construction firm is responsible for building and renovating many of the buildings in the community, including the Clay County Vocational School, the Board of Education building in Manchester, and the first building of the Laurel Campus of Somerset Community College. Along with these, Mr. McKnight also built North Laurel Middle School, as well as Hunter Hills Elementary School and the new Bush Elementary School. In the early 1970s, McKnight & Associates got the contract for the Kentucky Fried Chicken building in London, and later renovated Sanders Cafe and the Corbin KFC. Aside from his construction work, Mr. McKnight also became involved with several other business ventures. He was the first to bring the idea of self-storage units to southeastern Kentucky, opening the first self-storage facility there in 1976. He also founded Lee-Mart Rent-to- Own Stores, which later sold to Aaron's, Inc., and he co-founded Cumberland Valley Office Suppliers, Inc., a retail office supply store. After becoming involved with the London-Laurel County Tourist Commission, Delford developed the idea of the ``World Chicken Festival'' in 1989 to highlight Colonel Sanders's cooking worldwide, a festival that is still joyously celebrated to this day. Mr. McKnight has held many leadership positions throughout Kentucky. He is a past secretary of the Laurel County Chamber of Commerce, the first president of the Southeastern Kentucky Home Builders Association--from which he received the Time Award, and the current director of First National Bank & Trust in London, Kentucky. He also served as a member of the Cumberland Private Industry Council, the Cumberland Valley ADD Board, and the London-Laurel County Tourist Commission. Mr. McKnight serves as a member and chairman of the 13th Regional Vocational Advisory Council and was a 25-year member on the Corbin Tri-County Joint Industrial Development Authority. He was also honored by the Laurel County Homecoming Festival for his service to the community in 2007. In 1989, Delford completed construction on his ``dream executive home'' in London, Kentucky, and he recently completed the construction and landscaping on his second home in Venice, Florida. He has recently quietly retired, although he still helps with management decisions regarding his investments and business interest. Delford has been married to Lottie Gail since January 2001 after his first wife, Helen, died of cancer. Delford and Lottie Gail have a combined family of 5 children and 12 grandchildren. Delford is still an active member of the Laurel community today, serving as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at United Baptist Church, a member of the Laurel County Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Laurel County Vocational Advisory Council, and a member of the London- Laurel County Tourist Commission. At this time I ask my U.S. Senate colleagues to join me in recognizing Mr. Delford McKnight for his many contributions to the Laurel County community and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. An article from the Laurel County-area publication the Sentinel-Echo recently highlighted Mr. McKnight's success and accomplishments. I ask unanimous consent that said article be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the Sentinel-Echo, Apr. 30, 2012] Taking Chances Paid Off for McKnight (By Nita Johnson) Variety and challenges could well describe the life of Laurel native Delford McKnight. ``I always like a challenge,'' McKnight said, ``and I like variety.'' While his office is testimony to a variety of collectibles and what-nots, so is his life's work. With his roots in carpentry and farming, McKnight graduated from Bush High School and attended the University of Kentucky. ``I went for a year, quit, and got married,'' he said. He and his wife, Helen Owens McKnight, who died from cancer in 2000, ran a Laundromat and managed a rental apartment in Lexington while Delford also worked for a commercial construction company. In 1965, the McKnights returned to their hometown, where Delford landed a job with Hacker Brothers construction firm. Four years later, McKnight and partner Harold McPhetridge launched McKnight and Associates, which has constructed and/ or renovated many of the buildings in the county. His first ``big'' job came with the construction of the Clay County Vocational School, then getting the contract to build the Board of Education building in Manchester. He has since overseen the renovation of the first building of the Laurel campus of Somerset Community College, the former Interstate Coal offices on the property now known as College Park. His company built the former administration building, now known as the McDaniel Learning Center. He built North Laurel Middle School, Hunter Hills and the new Bush elementary schools as well as having his hand in school construction in Clay and Perry counties. McKnight and Associates landed the contract for the Eastern Kentucky University site in Clay County and the University of Kentucky site in Harlan. Though he credits his family background of carpentry and farming for sparking his interest in the construction business, he said the shop and vocational agriculture classes in high school solidified his choice of careers. ``I was raised on a farm and I think I could have been a farmer just as easily as I could do construction,'' he said. ``But I knew more about commercial construction than about building houses, so that's what I pursued. I took college prep classes in high school but I've utilized the skills in agriculture and shop classes more than any college prep class I had.'' A big believer in education, McKnight encourages students to pursue a field they enjoy and to bask in the opportunities they receive through their education and training courses. ``Get as much education as you possibly can, whether it's job training or vocational training or whatever you're interested in,'' he continued. ``You always need to continue to learn. Find something you like to do and pursue it.'' McKnight's career choice also led to his involvement with community activities. In the early 1970s, his firm landed the contract for the Kentucky Fried Chicken building in London. Later on, he was involved in the renovation of Harland Sanders's first restaurant--Sanders Cafe and the Corbin KFC. He also built the London-Laurel County Tourism office and became familiar with board members for that organization. When he kept hearing about increasing tourism in Kentucky through festivals, it was he who approached then-tourism director Ken Harvey and long-time board member Caner Cornett with the idea of the World Chicken Festival that highlighted Sanders's achievements worldwide. But being one of the ``firsts'' involved in the highly ranked fall festival is just one more of McKnight's ``firsts.'' While a student at UK in 1963, McKnight was one of those freshmen who challenged the football team to a snowball fight that has now become a tradition. Though he does not to this day recommend anyone challenge a UK football player in any form of physical challenge, he still laughs about the experience. He was the sole sixth-grade student at the one-room Langnau School before having to attend Bush Elementary the following year as one of 20 other seventh-grade students. He was the first to bring the idea of storage buildings to London--a challenge for both his crews as well as a business venture. ``I kept seeing these storage buildings in bigger towns and wondered if there would be a need for that in London,'' he explained. ``Self-storage actually began in California. The ones I built were used as an experiment here, mostly to keep my men working. We had a lull after building the (McKnight) apartments and I mainly just wanted to keep the men working so we built the storage units. It was one of the first ones east of the Mississippi and was unheard of in small towns, but now look around and see how many storage buildings there are around here.'' McKnight's love of variety also earned him a spot in the March/April 1991 edition of Kentucky Builder for his uniquely styled home in London. He has carried that variable interest into the design of his home in Florida that he shares with wife of more than 11 years, Lottie Gail. [[Page 8883]] ``I've had a good life but I've always been lucky to have great employees, most of whom have worked all their lives in this business. It's the people who keep you in business--not just the customers, but the people who work with you.'' ____________________