Personal: Forrest J. Knox
Born: Topeka, Kansas
Education:
1974 : Topeka High School, Topeka, KS
1978 : Kansas State University, Manhattan KS
BS Mechanical Engineering
1989 : Israel Institute of Technology
MS Mechanical Engineering
(Lady Davis Fellow)
Public Service:
First elected in 2004 and currently in his third term, Representative Knox serves as vice-chairman of the House Energy & Utilities Committee. He is also chairman of the Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations. Knox also serves on the House Federal and State Affairs Committee and the House Social Service Budget Committee.
Background:
Representative Knox and his wife, Renee’, and their nine children have lived in rural Wilson County since 1990. Forrest and his family managed the family farm and ranch operation which Renee’s grandparents had operated for over 50 years. They now run their own cow / calf and goat herds.
After graduation from Kansas State University they lived in Olathe, Kansas for six years where Forrest worked in the avionics industry designing general aviation flight instrumentation and guidance systems.
Following this they moved, with their two young daughters, to Israel where they lived for six years with Forrest pursuing engineering graduate studies, concentrating on electric power generation flue gas desulphurization. Forrest commonly says that they learned far more about non-engineering topics then engineering during their stay in the Middle East.
In November 2004 Forrest was elected as state representative in District 13, which is a rural district including Wilson and most of Woodson and Greenwood Counties. Forrest’s intent was then, and still is, to bring the traditional agrarian sensibilities which Kansas, and this nation, was founded with, and to bring straight forward, logical, “engineering” thinking to Topeka. He and his family are working hard to represent the interests of his district, and all of rural Kansas, in Topeka, as well as to promote cooperation and communication between state, county, city, and public school officials.
