Donald C. Knosby, 72, of Ankeny passed away at home on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 20 at 9:30 a.m. at the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Perry. Burial will follow at the Violet Hill Cemetery in Perry, Iowa.
Born in Perry, Iowa, on Aug. 6, 1950, Donald was the third of 11 children and the son of Verda and Bob Knosby.
Donald went to St. Patrick Catholic School in Perry for both elementary school and middle school. He was also a Boy Scout and played for the Perry Bowl Indians baseball team with his brother, John.
His freshman and sophomore years were spent at St. Patrick’s, and he spent his junior and senior years of high school at Perry Public High School. Donald loved to play basketball and spoke fondly of all the games he played with friends from St. Patrick’s and Perry High.
He enrolled in Fort Dodge Community College after he graduated high school in 1968.
During high school and after, until drafted into the U.S. Army, Donald worked for his father’s company, R. E. Knosby House and Machinery Moving.
He served in Vietnam from January 1971 to April 1972.
After military discharge, Donald returned to Perry and worked at Knosby Co. until the fall 1972, when he backpacked across Greece, Northern Africa and Southern Europe. Upon returning home, he continued with Knosby Co. until it was sold in 1984.
After briefly working for a moving company in Waterloo, Donald was employed by Coast Machinery Movers in South El Monte, California, where he worked for five years before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. There he opened a branch office for Coast, named Coast International Services Inc., which he eventually purchased, stayed with for a number of years and then sold to his brother Bob before retiring back to his home state of Iowa in 2018.
Throughout his adult life, Donald’s loves and interests were many, including family, photography, reading and — of course — cookies.
Donald is survived by his wife, Diana (Hall) Knosby; daughters, Dorothy (Ryan Schoneboom) Knosby and Marybeth Swanzy (husband Kyle and sons Henry and Dylan); and the following siblings, Mary (Tom) Ingram-Chittick, John (Cindy) Knosby, Kay (Rob) Hoette, Danny (Renee) Knosby, Ellen (Lenny, deceased) Stracke, Janet Knosby, Karen (Craig) Hurley, Barb (Doug) Hutt and Bob (Kay) Knosby; and many nieces and nephews.
He is predeceased by brother, Tim Knosby; mother, Verda; father, Bob; and maternal and paternal grandparents.
