Remembering Mike Knapic — a doctor and so much more
Dr. Michael S. Knapic, 1969-2024
Dr. Michael Knapic got a second chance at life after suffering a stroke at the age of 48 in 2017.
Already a highly respected member of the Wayne County community and beyond, people’s admiration for Knapic grew by leaps and bounds as he returned to doing almost everything as well as he did before the stroke.
Knapic died while golfing in Jamaica on March 15. He was just 55 years old.
Family man, surgeon at Wooster Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Center, horse showman, bass player in the band DTz, sports enthusiast, and golfer were among the titles one could attribute to Knapic.
“Mike said a long time ago, ‘I’ve gotta play music or I get the DTz,’” longtime friend and bandmate Dr. Denny Davis said of the abbreviation for the medical term delirium tremens, referring to withdrawal symptoms. “We wound up using that as our band’s name.
“We got together at (Dr.) Kevin Mathur’s house to play the night before Mike left for Jamaica. Mike said, ‘All I need to pack are my swim trunks and golf clubs and I’ll be perfectly happy.’ It was a fun night. None of us could have ever possibly imagined what would happen two days later.”
“We’ve gone to the same resort for many years in Jamaica and met some amazing friends from around the world,” said Debbie Knapic, Mike’s widow.
The couple started dating as sophomores at Rittman High School and had been married for 32 years.
“They play their own Ryder Cup every year. They golf every day, and they’d made it through the first nine holes and went to the 10th hole. Mike hit a beautiful drive, and he was putting for an eagle actually. He missed that putt and was walking up for his birdie putt (when he collapsed),” Debbie Knapic said.
Knapic’s death has left a hole in the lives of his family, co-workers, friends and patients. He left behind sons Trevor, 28, and Garrett, 22, and daughter Hannah, 24, who all meant the world to him.
He also was survived by his mother Rae Knapic and sisters Susan (Jim) Baker, Barb Knapic (Chuck Whitson) and Marla (Bob) Derga, as well as many nieces and nephews. He also will be deeply missed by his mother-in-law Sharon Chipps and sister-in-law Pam Chipps.
The support from family and friends has helped keep Debbie Knapic going.
“It’s been overwhelming at times, and it’s been heartwarming,” Debbie Knapic said. “I’ve known Michael since we were teenagers. All the lives he’s touched, it’s sometimes unfathomable.”
The stroke Knapic suffered in August 2017 could have easily killed him, but through sheer determination and countless hours of hard work, he regained everything but his confident public speaking voice.
“It was a very serious stroke, and he was very, very lucky,” said Debbie Knapic, a licensed pharmacist who was the Wooster High varsity gymnastics head coach for 13 seasons. “A lot of people have watched the (Declaration) CrossFit video about Michael’s recovery, but my hard part seeing that so much is that’s not who he was now.
“He was so many strides ahead of where he was in the video having a great difficulty talking. It makes me look back and realize just how far he came, but that’s not how I want people to remember him. I want people to remember who he was seven years later. He really had no deficits other than everybody knew he still talked funny.”
Knapic and Davis, a doctor of primary care musculoskeletal medicine for the Cleveland Clinic, met the first day of medical school in 1991 and have remained best friends ever since. They served together as team doctors for the Wooster High School and College of Wooster football teams.
“Mike was the kind of person who worked as hard as he could at everything he did, but then he made it look easy,” Davis said. “Whether it was music, golf, showing horses or as an orthopedic surgeon, he did everything at an extremely high level. And he always had fun.”
Kathy Rakovec, Knapic’s longtime clinical manager and close friend, said she still sometimes feels like he will return soon from vacation.
“I still don’t feel like I’ve completely processed it,” Rakovec said. “Mike had his hands in so many different things. It was amazing. You can’t replace him whatsoever. He was a great person, friend and he had a heart of gold.”
Knapic was a football captain at Rittman and The College of Wooster and former Wooster School Board president. He helped found the Wooster Ambulatory Surgery Center.
Debbie Knapic has tried to make sense of why her late husband worked so hard to recover after the stroke, only to lose his life seven years later.
“I don’t have an answer,” she said. “I think going through the stroke and that whole path back to where he got to be now was a lesson. I think in his healing life he taught a lot of lessons.
“I wish this didn’t have to happen to smack you in the face with the lesson of ‘live every day like it’s your last.’ Don’t put off things that you can do today until tomorrow. Don’t leave a friend or a family member without a hug and an ‘I love you’ because your tomorrow is not guaranteed.”
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held April 15 at 4 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church in Wooster. A Celebration of Life will follow from 5:30-8:30 p.m. in the upstairs of the Lowry Center at The College of Wooster.
“It will just be a celebration because that’s what Michael would have wanted,” Debbie Knapic said. “That’s the kind of person he was — the rock star. So we’re going to try to not be sad, and we’re going to celebrate because he was amazing.”
Editor's note: In the print edition of this story, it is incorrectly stated that Knapic and Dr. Denny Davis, best friends since meeting at medical school, were doctors of primary care musculoskeletal medicine for the Cleveland Clinic. Knapic never had that title nor did he work for the Cleveland Clinic.