TRAVEL'S p1 John Stephenson Santa Judge Executive Kris Knockelman December 4, 2019

These two stories tell a lot about Judge Kris Knockelman Kenton County Judge Executive.
Leading one of the Largest counties and population centers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We have had on our show, Are You READY? Judge Gary More of Boone County and Judge Steve Pendery of Campbell County and tomorrow's show brings Judge Executive Kris Knockelman in for a hour look at the person and the direction of the place thousands of people call home. WHERE HAVE WE BEEN, WHERE ARE WE GOING AND ARE WE READY? THIS IS THE PERSON WITH HIS FINGER ON THE PULSE OF LIFE IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY. IT IS A HONOR TO HAVE HAD ALL THREE JUDGES AND THOSE IN OUR SISTER COUNTIES FROM THE AREA DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT TO PROMOTE COMMUNICATION WITH THE CITIZENS AND THEIR GOVERNMENT, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SOCIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WITH BUSINESS AND LABOR.
SHOW ON CHANNEL 422 PUBLIC ACCESS & KENTON, CAMPBELL AND BOONE COUNTY AND ALL NORTHERN KENTUCKY COUNTIES
TRAVEL'S JOHN AND JUNE GEIMAN-STEPHENSON YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK. HISTORY IS THE LIGHT TO OUR FUTURE.
JOHN STEPHENSON FORMER SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION FOR THE COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY. 859 750 0000 js7500000@gmail.com

Mike Rutledge
Kenton County Judge-executive Kris Knochelmann didn’t have the typical college experience at Xavier University during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. While others were dressing casually and soaking in the campus life, Knochelmann, a Ronald Reagan fan who started working in the office of his family plumbing and heating business at age 16, wore a tie to classes.

“I worked full-time, so I didn’t engage in the campus life like I would have. You need to be engaging daily if you’re going to enjoy it,” he says. “[Instead] I would get up, go to school. I’d dress like this. I’d come to work. I’ve always worked in the office.”

He didn’t go out on plumbing or heating calls, but did bookkeeping and marketing, and answered the phones, took calls and dispatch.

His mother died when he was a baby, and after his father remarried he was the youngest of a blended, nine-child family. But he was five years younger than his next youngest brother, so on one hand, many older siblings raised him. But as he grew into his teens, he was almost an only child who attended the accelerated Covington Latin School, which probably led to his mature outlook.

“By the time I got old enough to be aware, it was just me and my brother Pete,” Knochelmann says. “And by that time he was a teenager and out doing his own thing, and then it was me. I went to Latin school and moved to Riverside Terrace condos down there in a brand-new building, and I was the only kid in that whole neighborhood.”

He moved onto Xavier’s campus when his parents retired to Florida and graduated in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in accounting.

“Really, from my junior year in high school all the way through college, I worked in the plumbing and heating business with my dad and family. Never stopped working here,” he says. “I guess you can kind of say I’ve had one job since I was 16.”

Knochelmann, his brothers and brother-in-law bought the business from their dad, then sold to a publically traded company that later eliminated his job and many others nationwide. He turned down a position that the company offered and within 90 days, he had purchased competitor Schneller Heating, Air Conditioning and Plumbing, where he and wife Lisa work with three of his brothers, three nephews and a cousin.

“We’ve grown by six times in 3 1/2 years,” he says. “God has taken care of me.”

They live in Crescent Springs, across the street from one sister and next door to another.

Now, 44, he has been familiarizing himself with the machinery of a much higher profile position: Kenton County judge-executive, the top executive position overseeing county government, to which he was elected last year.

A self-described political “nerd” and Reagan fan, Knochelmann served on his first board while in high school.

He began helping people run county campaigns, when, at age 19, former Judge-executive Clyde Middleton asked him to serve on the board of the Northern Kentucky Action Commission, an organization founded in the Lyndon B. Johnson-era during the War on Poverty. The board oversaw programs like Head Start, weatherization (protecting the exterior and interior of buildings), senior services and other social services offered by the community agency.

“It was a very big education on the opportunities that people can get by their community,” Knochelmann says. “You know, some things were successful, some things weren’t, but overall you saw a lot of great people doing a lot of good work. And also, I learned how boards operate, how a meeting operates.”

Knochelmann, who once considered being a priest and visited several seminaries, found his calling as a husband and father, and works in his family’s business instead. He belongs to St. Joseph Church in Crescent Springs and is a big fan of Pope Francis.

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December