Former Eastham selectman and stained-glass craftsman John Knight, whose work graces the police station and Methodist Church in town along with the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster and many other public buildings and houses across the Cape, died on March 18, 2023, at Cape Cod Hospital with his wife, Donna, and daughter, Kris, at his side. He was 84.
A renowned storyteller, John held court at the Glass Eye, the stained-glass business he ran with Donna from 1975 to 2013. He was also a dedicated teacher who never lost touch with his students or with his “swamp Yankee” roots in Eastern Connecticut.
The fifth and youngest child of the late Leroy and Lillian (Gauthier) Knight, John was born on Dec. 20, 1938 in Plainfield, Conn. As a boy, he hunted for squirrels and fished for bullhead catfish with his father; they would then share squirrel pie and bullhead fillets with their neighbors, helping, Donna said, “to feed the town.”
Those experiences stayed with John during his long residence in Eastham, where he would share his flounder catch and bushels of clams with friends and their families. John was “the person who introduced me to the best stuffed clams from Salt Pond,” said his friend Gwynne Guzzeau.
A big man, John played on the defensive line of the Plainfield High football team. After graduating in 1956, he worked for a year or two before studying education and history at Southern Connecticut State University, where he played football. He also met Donna Russell there; she was studying art.
Donna graduated in 1963, and the couple married during Christmas break that year, before John graduated in 1964.
John’s first job after college was at the Connecticut State Receiving Home at Warehouse Point in Hartford, a residence for children ages 7 to 18 whose parents were unable to care for them. It was a challenging environment, said Donna, but John thrived there as a teacher “with a core of kindness beneath his forbidding exterior.”
His “commanding presence,” Donna said, was also essential for his evening job at the Boys Club in Hartford. The boys “would check their weapons at the door — mostly knives,” she said, then play basketball and get their weapons back as they left.
During the early years of their marriage, John pursued his hobby of woodworking, making simple, functional furniture “out of necessity,” Donna said. He learned to make what they needed — a dining room table, for example — without power tools. Friends commented on how attractive his work was, so he started making furniture for others.
As he developed his woodcraft, he began to integrate glass into his designs. His supplier was Whittemore-Durgin Glass in Rockland, whose master craftsmen taught John to make stained glass.
During her childhood, Donna had vacationed in Eastham with her family. When Kris was born, they decided to move here. They built a house in 1969. The septic and well challenges inspired John’s long-term interest in Eastham’s water issues.
John became a second-grade teacher at Eastham Elementary School, but he missed working with children who had learning challenges.
After one year, he left Eastham Elementary to teach at the Clinical Teaching Center (also known as the Marconi School) in South Wellfleet. Housed in three barracks buildings at the old Army base, it served 50 students ages 10 to 17 with learning disabilities. The school was “an under-resourced place with committed teachers,” Donna said. John left in 1975 (the school closed in 1987).
John and Donna opened their stained-glass studio in North Eastham that year. John dedicated himself fully to his craft; Donna taught school and created designs for John’s commissions.
Eastham commissioned the stained-glass window for the police station in 1990, a year after the building went up. Donna’s “Winds of Change” design aimed for historical accuracy in depicting the first encounter between Europeans and the Nauset people.
As John’s commissions flourished, he refined his techniques to include sandblasting, which enabled him to make more intricate designs, such as the one he did for the windows at the Mews restaurant in Provincetown. “He was an unbelievable craftsman,” said Sue Clark, who managed the Glass Eye.
John was a longtime member of the Artisans Guild and the Society of Cape Cod Craftsmen. He also remained a teacher, offering a stained-glass class every winter “for the locals,” Clark said. Many students repeated the course year after year. Mark Ahrens, one of his students at the Clinical Teaching Center, is now an Air Force veteran working to set up his own studio as a second career.
Public service came naturally to John, who advocated for clean town water, affordable housing, and financial stability to ensure the long-term health and vitality of the town. He served on six town committees, including the housing authority and the board of health, as well as for eight years as a selectman. He left town service in 2018.
After closing the Glass Eye, John worked at the Eastham Information Booth, sharing his local knowledge with everyone who came in. He was also a regular at the “Daddy Day Camp” at the Eastham Senior Center. “They miss his stories,” Kris said. “He was a talker. He was never at a loss for words.”
His favorite role most recently was to be a grandfather to his grandson Matthew. “They loved to snuggle and read books together,” Kris said.
John is survived by his wife, Donna Knight of Orleans; daughter Kristina Knight and partner George Paxson of Portland, Maine; grandson Matthew Knight of Portland; his brother Robert Knight of Auburn, Maine; and by many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and -nephews, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and friends.
He was predeceased by his sisters, Eileen (Knight) Brodeur and Marge (Knight) Burton, and his brother Richard Knight.
Donations in John’s memory may be made to the Cape Cod Tech Foundation at capecodtechfoundation.org. A celebration of John’s life will be held at a date to be announced.
