A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down for a few moments with William C. Knapp, one of the most successful and benevolent businessmen this city has ever seen. We were talking mostly about the plan to create whitewater courses and other fun spots along the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, and elsewhere. Knapp is one of the honorary co-chairs of the local water trails organization. I took the opportunity to ask him  what he hoped his legacy would be. 

“I don’t know what kind of legacy I will leave,” Knapp said. “If I leave anything, I just hope that I’m leaving it better than when I came.  

“I sure want to do anything I can to make this a better place to live. And if it is a better place to live, people will want to come here. And then when you get people here, they will want to stay here. I know we’ve had people from New York come out here and they thought we had spears. They couldn’t believe when they got here how nice it is. So I always felt anything I can do to make this a better place to live. And you know after all is said and done, when you leave here the only thing you leave behind is what you left here.”