Background of N. H.
Knorr
Nathan Homer Knorr was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on
April 23, 1905. When he was 16 years old, he became associated with the
Allentown Congregation of Bible Students. In 1922 he attended the convention at
Cedar Point, Ohio, where he made up his mind to resign from the Reformed
Church. The following year, on July 4, 1923, after Frederick W. Franz, from
Brooklyn Bethel, delivered a baptism talk, 18-year-old Nathan was among those
who were baptized in the Little Lehigh River, in Eastern Pennsylvania. On
September 6, 1923, Brother Knorr became a member of the Bethel family in
Brooklyn.
Brother Knorr applied himself diligently in the Shipping Department, and before long his natural abilities in organizing were recognized. When the Society’s factory manager, Robert J. Martin, died on September 23, 1932, Brother Knorr was appointed to replace him. On January 11, 1934, Brother Knorr was elected to be a director of the Peoples Pulpit Association (now Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.), and the following year he was made the Association’s vice president. On June 10, 1940, he became the vice president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Pennsylvania corporation). His election to the presidency of both societies and of the British corporation, International Bible Students Association, came in January 1942.
In the years that followed, one of Brother Knorr’s closest
associates and trusted counselors was Frederick W. Franz, a man older in years
than he was and one whose knowledge of languages and whose background as a
Bible scholar had already proved to be of great value to the organization.
*** jv chap. 8 p. 91
Declaring the Good News Without Letup
(1942-1975) ***
“Firm to the End”
IT IS with mixed feelings that the announcement is
made that a faithful servant of Jehovah, Brother Nathan H. Knorr, after many
months of illness, died in the late evening of June 8, 1977. His zealous and
steadfast course over many long years is a fine example of one who looked
“straight ahead.” His ways were “firmly established,” and he did not “incline
to the right hand or to the left.” (Prov. 4:25-27) To those who were in close
touch with him he always gave the encouragement to “make fast our hold on our
freeness of speech and our boasting over the hope firm to the end.”—Heb. 3:6.
Brother Knorr was born on April 23, 1905. He was
baptized on July 4, 1923, and entered Bethel service the same year. From 1932
on he held various positions of responsibility in guiding the activity of
Jehovah’s Witnesses, and in 1942 he became the president of the Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. He married Audrey Mock, January 31,
1953. His natural abilities in organizing and expanding the work were fully
used in the oversight of the Society’s branches world wide, involving frequent
and extensive traveling and lecturing. The educational aspect of our Christian
work was especially advanced during the years he served as president. In 1943
he was instrumental in establishing the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead for
the training of missionaries. He was privileged to see the number of Witnesses
increase from 115,240 in 1942 to 2,248,390 in 1976.
Though death brings a sense of loss and the need for comfort,
yet we rejoice on Brother Knorr’s account, especially in view of the record he
made of love for God’s people and God’s work, shown by unflagging zeal and
willingness to expend himself down to the end. We rejoice still more because we
are living in the day when those with the heavenly hope, on finishing their
earthly course, are “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and are
“raised up incorruptible.” (1 Cor. 15:51, 52) Let the hope of life everlasting
in God’s kingdom cause us also to “make fast our hold on the confidence we had
at the beginning firm to the end.”—Heb. 3:14.
*** w77 7/15 p. 441 “Firm
to the End” ***