William Knowlton; Weston native led West Point

GEN. WILLIAM KNOWLTON

WASHINGTON - William A. Knowlton, a retired four-star general who during four decades of military duty was superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point, died Aug. 10 at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., as a result of a fall. He was 88 and had Parkinson's disease.

General Knowlton, a 1943 West Point graduate, was the 49th superintendent of the academy, a post he held from 1970 to 1974.

His tenure reflected the uproar of the culture as the Vietnam War was coming to a close, and General Knowlton's attempts to tighten discipline were met with the filing of several lawsuits.

He described his job there as "the commander of a stockade surrounded by attacking Indians," in Rick Atkinson's 1989 "The Long Gray Line," a history of West Point. In 1974, the US Supreme Court supported the school's ability to set and enforce high standards.

By the time he retired in 1980, General Knowlton was the Army's second-highest-ranking four-star general, the New York Times said.

The Weston, Mass., native fought in four campaigns during World War II, beginning in Normandy. In the last weeks of the war, he was awarded a Silver Star for leading a reconnaissance mission deep behind German lines. He also served as an adviser for the Defense Nuclear Agency. He had been a resident of Arlington County and Alexandria, Va., since 1980.