A memorial service was held Wednesday in McCallsburg for George Knaphus, a professor of botany who inspired many students and faculty members during his 36-year career at Iowa State.

Knaphus, 75, died of cancer Saturday after a two-year battle with lymphoma. The professor also was a slow-pitch softball player who pitched his 500th victory last May.

David Oliver, professor and chairman of botany, said Knaphus was many students’ favorite teacher.

“Dr. Knaphus — Dr. K, as his students called him — was very popular with his students. He taught in our introductory botany classes, and he taught courses for education majors.

“His way of [thinking] was every student there was more than willing to learn if you could just figure out what that student needed to get excited about the subject, and so he always tried to have a lot of excitement in his classes,” he said.

Lois Tiffany, distinguished professor of botany, also said student learning was very important to Knaphus.

“His main concern was students and the fact that they had an optimum opportunity to grow during their college years,” she said. “Every student was important as far as he was concerned.”

Oliver said Knaphus incorporated playful activities during classtime, such as tossing students coins when they asked thoughtful questions.

“These aren’t bribes, this was a fun way to bring excitement to the class,” he said.

“If the student asked a particularly good question or gave a particularly good answer to a question, he would always tell them that ‘Ooh, that was such a good question or such a good answer it deserves a reward,’ so he’d pull a dime out of his pocket and toss it to the student.”

Tiffany said the late professor did a lot of work with students outside of class as well.

“He was very active in student organizations. He had been faculty adviser to the Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Council for 35 years, and they recognized his service at a banquet this spring,” she said. “He was also an adviser to the Botany Club for 35 years. He was very active in his interactions with students besides the teacher-student, adviser-advisee combination.”

On his coed and men’s intramural and church league softball teams, Knaphus was both pitcher and coach. He started keeping tally of his wins late in his career.

“That was his 500th [win] since he was 60,” Tiffany said. “He had heart surgery when he was 60, and after that was when he started keeping track.”

Knaphus leaves behind a wife and four children: Kris Knaphus of Cascade, Mont., Dan Knaphus of McCallsburg, Debbie Raines of Knoxville, Tenn., and Dawn Bovenmyer of Ames. He also is survived by 10 grandchildren and two siblings, Lawrence Knaphus of McCallsburg and Sigrid Knaphus of Story City.