[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.''

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