St. Olaf College remembers three former faculty members who passed away this winter. Lenore Schmidt, a former voice teacher; F. Marian Walker, music professor emerita and conductor of the Manitou Singers; and Loring Dahl Knecht, retired French professor and longtime head of the romance language Department all passed away since the beginning of December. These three faculty members taught at St. Olaf for a total of 97 years.

Knecht managed WCAL as a student in the early 1940's. He also played Prospero in a student production of The Tempest. Knecht served as chair of the romance languages department for 28 of his 36 years as a St. Olaf professor. He helped to create the St. Olaf international studies program, one of the first in the nation, and led student groups in France and Germany. He considered his work with international studies his greatest accomplishment. He also owned a tour company with his first wife, Suzanne Toan, with whom he had two children. He died on Jan. 16 in Northfield, after fighting liver cancer for several years.

Schmidt was born in Deary, Idaho in 1910. She graduated from St. Olaf in 1931, having sung with the St. Olaf choir and acted in a production of A Doll's House. Schmidt attended graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Beginning in 1935, she taught voice both as a private tutor and faculty member of St. Olaf until her retirement in 1976. Many of her students went on to professional careers in music. She was known to contemporary students for receptions at her home after recitals. Schmidt died on Feb. 2 at Northfield Hospital; she was 90 years old.

Walker graduated from Knox College, Northwestern University, and attended Eastman School of Music in New York for her Ph.D. At St. Olaf, she conducted the Manitou Singers and Repertory Singers, in addition to teaching theory and other music courses. Walker also taught at Eastman School of Music and Princeville Community High School in Illinois. She retired from St. Olaf in 1981. She died on Dec. 10, 2000, in St. Louis, Missouri.