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A celebration of the life of J. Burke Knapp of Portola Valley, who had a distinguished career in international finance, will be held Thursday, Dec. 17, at Stanford Memorial Church on the Stanford campus. It will be followed by a reception at the Stanford Faculty Club. Mr. Knapp died Nov. 22 in Palo Alto at the age of 96.

A resident of Portola Valley for 26 years, Mr. Knapp lived at The Sequoias retirement community for the past 10 years.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Mr. Knapp graduated in 1933 from Stanford University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and captain of the water polo team. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University from 1933 to 1936. After four years of apprenticeship in London in international banking, he returned to the United States to work as an economist for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Knapp served in the U.S. government until 1952, holding senior positions with the Federal Reserve Board and in the State Department. He was a member of the inter-departmental committee to prepare the Marshall Plan, became the economic adviser to the first U.S. delegation to NATO in 1950-51, and was appointed U.S. chairman of the U.S.-Brazil Joint Commission for Economic Development.

In 1952 he joined the World Bank as director of its Latin-American operation, and in 1956 was appointed as senior vice president and chairman of the World Bank's loan committee. He retired in 1978.

After retiring, he returned to Stanford, where he was active in the university community for 26 years. He created a program for Stanford students to work as interns in World Bank offices and assisted students in preparing for their posts.

He also established a fund for Stanford students studying in Washington, D.C., to receive free tickets to performances at the Arena Stage Theater, which he helped found in Washington.

Mr. Knapp is survived by his four children, Louis, Rosalind, Elise, and Michael; two grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. In 1939 he married Hilary Eaves of London, and in 1976 was married to Iris Hay-Edie of Port Antonio, Jamaica. Both preceded him in death.

■ Read 1975 oral history interview with J. Burke Knapp at the Harry S. Truman Library.

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