GLANDORF, Ohio — Thomas L. Knapke, who taught generations of Putnam County math and science students and then led them in song at church, died Tuesday in Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. He was 88.

The cause of death has not yet been determined, but it is believed he suffered a heart attack or stroke, his daughter Jeanne Callahan said. He was flown by medical helicopter to Mercy St. Vincent after his car drove off a Putnam County bridge into the Blanchard River on Tuesday morning.

Mr. Knapke retired from his 48-year teaching career in the 1990s. Much of that was in the Ottawa-Glandorf school district, where he started teaching math and science to seventh and eighth graders in 1951.

“He gave good examples, and he made things practical for people to learn,” Ms. Callahan said. She and her siblings had him as a math teacher, which they weren’t too fond of at the time.

“It was hard. You couldn’t get away with anything,” she said.

A few years ago, a local contractor working at Mr. Knapke’s house told Ms. Callahan, “‘I wouldn’t even know how to read a tape measure if it weren’t for your dad,’” she recalled. “My dad is responsible for a lot of practical knowledge in this town.

“Teaching was one thing. One of the greatest gifts he gave this town was music,” Ms. Callahan said.

He was organist at St. John the Baptist Church for 63 years. In recent years, his duties were part time, but he continued to play until December, 2014. Music, for him, “contributed to people having a spiritual experience while attending Mass,” Ms. Callahan said.

“He was an enthusiastic player,” she said. “He liked drama and the big finish.”

He also was in charge of the church choir for many years.

“He was a wonderful choir director. He gathered a choir of men. These men were farmers,” Ms. Callahan said. “He taught them to sing, and they loved it.”

Mr. Knapke had high standards for music in church — and got results.

“He was very engaging. He was handsome. He had a commanding presence,” Ms. Callahan said.

He’d sung in a barbershop quartet in Minster, Ohio, where he grew up. Later he sang tenor and baritone parts in the Glandorf Four, a group he helped form.

In 1988, Mr. Knapke was named an outstanding citizen of his Putnam County village.

He was born Feb. 17, 1927, in Mercer County’s Cranberry Prairie to Anna and Anthony Knapke, the youngest of 11. He grew up in Minster, where his father was a teacher and church organist. A brother, Luke, also became a teacher and organist.

After graduating from Minster High School, Mr. Knapke was in the Army. Through a specialized training program, he was sent to study Japanese in Minnesota.

Afterward, he received a bachelor of science in education degree from the University of Dayton.

Teaching was a family tradition, Ms. Callahan said, and “he was well suited to it. He was highly intelligent.”

Mr. Knapke played tennis competitively into the 1980s and was a woodworker.

He and Dorothy Murray married on June 2, 1951. She died July 19, 2012.

Their son James died in 1992. Daughter Tina Chia died in September, 2015.

Surviving are his daughters Mary Anne Migliore, Jeanne Callahan, Margaret Dissette, and Liz Bacon; sons Thomas and Joe Knapke; sisters Beata Muhlenkamp and Ann Hickey; 16 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. today in Love Funeral Home, Ottawa, with a recitation of the Rosary at 7:30 p.m. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday in St. John the Baptist Church, Glandorf.

The family suggests tributes to the church or the Putnam County Library. 

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.

First Published November 1, 2015, 4:00 a.m.