Lee Knapp

Educator and entrepreneur Lee Knapp was born in 1957, the loudest reverberation of the Baby Boom. She was raised in suburban Richmond, Virginia where the symbols and legacy of the Civil War defined that city. After graduating from high school in America’s bicentennial year, she went on to study history at the historic College of William and Mary, where it was not uncommon to see Patrick Henry, George Wythe, or James Monroe throwing back beers at the Greenleaf Cafe before riding their mopeds off towards Jamestown Road. Despite a professor’s admonition that “there’s no future in history,” Knapp’s life has been unavoidably circumscribed by it.

After graduating from college, Knapp began teaching history in her home county in 1980 and by 1986 had three sons. She took a seventeen year hiatus from education during which she opened a ceramics studio and business in her home. In early 2003, she published a book of fifteen essays through Baker Books called Grace in the First Person. In the fall of that year, she returned to a classroom at her alma mater to teach modern European and US history, as well as a class in epistemology, Theory of Knowledge. In 2008, she launched her second business, grammarRULES!, a line of plates, mugs, and greeting cards that address grammatical pet peeves with a wry, slightly judgmental tone.

Knapp retired from teaching in 2021 and enjoys traveling and spending time with her wonderful sons and their families.