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Our classmate Cameron Knackstedt passed away on Saturday. Our sympathies are with his family and friends.
Cameron D. Knackstedt, D.O., known as “Dr. K” to friends, family, and patients, was born on September 5, 1948, to Delmer and Glennys “Joan” Knackstedt in Wichita, Kansas, and entered eternal rest on June 20, 2026, in Hoisington, Kansas, at the age of 77, surrounded by his family. He was preceded in death by his wife Barbara, his parents, and his brother Davon.
Cameron was raised on a farm near Windom, Kansas, and grew up as part of the rural Andover Lutheran Community. Growing up in the tight-knit farming community meant long hours working in the fields, participating in 4-H & Future Farmers of America, helping friends and families when in need, and of course, going to church every Sunday. These early experiences taught him a strong work ethic, a sense of serving others, and a down-to-earth common sense that served him well throughout his life.
He attended school in the country through eighth grade but was sent “to town” for high school in McPherson, Kansas. He enjoyed and excelled as a vocalist, even portraying Captain Georg von Trapp in McPherson’s high school production of The Sound of Music.
It was while attending high school that he met the love of his life, Barbara Ann Becker. They dated for less than a year before he proposed to her at their senior-year high school prom. They were united in marriage on June 3, 1966, and Cameron, at the age of 17, and Barbara, at the age of 18, set off to build their lives together.
They attended Kansas State Teacher’s College in Emporia, Kansas, both intending to become teachers. While Barbara completed her dream of becoming a 4th grade teacher in 1970, Cameron, with the support and encouragement of an individual who would become his lifelong friend, Dr. Marshall Walker, D.O., answered his true calling – to become an Osteopathic Physician.
In the summer of 1971, driving the 1948 Chevrolet pickup truck he had bought from his grandfather for $200, they moved to Kansas City, where he started medical school at the Kansas City College of Osteopathic Medicine. During his medical training they were blessed with two sons - Nathaniel Clay Knackstedt in 1973 and Jason Ryan Knackstedt in 1975. Graduating from medical school in 1975 and completing his internship in Kansas City in 1976, he would thereafter be known as “Dr. K”.
Dr. K moved his family to Phillipsburg, Kansas, in the summer of 1976 and went to work as a true small town doctor – rounding on patients in the early morning, seeing patients in the clinic, assisting in surgery, delivering babies, and working the ER when on call.
Dr. K was a natural at medicine and had a unique ability to connect and relate with his patients. Countless adults, once young children in the 1970s – 1990s, could tell you stories of “Dr. K’s magic water” that he gave them when he had to stitch them up after a tumble at the playground. He knew that when that old farmer came in and said he just felt “a little sick” that he probably had double pneumonia and needed to be admitted to the hospital right away. And Dr. K delivered babies for so many years that he delivered babies for babies that he had delivered.
Dr. K also had a passion for education and trained countless medical students from his alma mater over the years. He was a firm believer in the “see one, do one, teach one” approach with his students and he treated them as his colleagues. His approach put them at ease and steadily built their confidence through practical hands-on experience.
A relentless advocate for his profession, for many years Dr. K served on the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, the Board Of Trustees of his alma mater, and as the President of the Kansas Association of Osteopathic Medicine. Through this service he helped maintain the integrity of his profession and shape the next generation of physicians.
Dr. K continued practicing medicine for 42-years, retiring in 2018. But he was not just a leader in medicine, he was a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a friend to many. He worked hard to provide for his family, which allowed him and Barbara to build their dream house in 1994 and gave his sons the opportunity to realize their own dreams. He was particularly proud of his grandchildren, Cameron Jack, Luca Ugo, Rosalie Ann, and Emmalee Dawn.
He loved shooting guns, and his hunting stories with his good friend Jim Northup are the stuff of legend, or as the duo was known, “Knackstedt driving and Northup shooting”. Through it all, Dr. K worked tirelessly to give his patients, his students, his profession, his friends, and his family all he could.
And as he finishes his last dictation, hangs up his stethoscope and white coat for the last time, and turns off the lights at the clinic to head home, we pray he enjoys his eternal rest with previously departed colleagues, friends, and family.
The family will receive friends from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM, Friday, June 26, 2026, at Stockham Family Funeral Home (205 N. Chestnut, McPherson, KS 67460). The funeral service will be held at 10:00 AM, Saturday, June 27, at Andover Lutheran Church (117 Dakota Road, Windom, KS 67491) with Pastor Anna Borders officiating. Burial will follow at McPherson Cemetery. The family encourages all in attendance to wear casual attire.
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