Sep 12, 2026 · 31 min · 13 segments
Monthly Sponsors: North Dakota Tourism Weatherby Katie Burke welcomes returning guest Dan Thiel to discuss the founder of Ducks…
Dan ThielGuestKatie BurkeHostToday on the podcast, we have returning guest Dan Theel, Executive Secretary of Ducks Unlimited and COO of Wetlands America Trust.
We are back talking about Ducks Unlimited history, and today we are going to talk about our founder, Joseph Knapp Jr., and more game birds of America.
I will be honest, I have tried to learn more about Joseph Knapp, but he's pretty elusive out there, and it is hard to get a lot of information on him.
I know that he is the heir to Metropolitan Life Insurance and that he goes into newspapers, which I'm not exactly sure how that transition actually happens either.
So I'm gonna go to you, and I know you can kind of get us into that beginning story.
Every organization has their patron saint, and Joseph Knapp would be the Ducks Unlimited patron saint.
It's been quoted in the literature that the duck had no better friend than Joseph Knapp.
Uh, oftentimes, when I talk about DU history or the DU story, I'll often describe the Mount Rushmore of Ducks Unlimited.
Who would be on the Mount Rushmore? He'd be the first guy I'd put on the Mount Rushmore.
Ha- had we not had his vision and not had his philanthropy, I don't know that we would ever have gotten started.
If you look at the context of the Depression, what a, what a challenging time to establish a nonprofit organization for the benefit of waterfowl.
There's some pretty world-level challenges affecting the world, and here's a guy that's caring about ducks, and, and he puts his vision, his energy, and his pocketbook behind waterfowl.
Earlier you said that, you know, the first mention of him was in North American Waterfowlers.
And Joseph Knapp was the money behind what we, I think, refer to it as the International Wild Duck Census of 1935.
Today on the podcast, we have returning guest Dan Theel, Executive Secretary of Ducks Unlimited and COO of Wetlands America Trust.
We are back talking about Ducks Unlimited history, and today we are going to talk about our founder, Joseph Knapp Jr., and more game birds of America.
I will be honest, I have tried to learn more about Joseph Knapp, but he's pretty elusive out there, and it is hard to get a lot of information on him.
I know that he is the heir to Metropolitan Life Insurance and that he goes into newspapers, which I'm not exactly sure how that transition actually happens either.
So I'm gonna go to you, and I know you can kind of get us into that beginning story.
Every organization has their patron saint, and Joseph Knapp would be the Ducks Unlimited patron saint.
It's been quoted in the literature that the duck had no better friend than Joseph Knapp.
Uh, oftentimes, when I talk about DU history or the DU story, I'll often describe the Mount Rushmore of Ducks Unlimited.
Who would be on the Mount Rushmore? He'd be the first guy I'd put on the Mount Rushmore.
Ha- had we not had his vision and not had his philanthropy, I don't know that we would ever have gotten started.
If you look at the context of the Depression, what a, what a challenging time to establish a nonprofit organization for the benefit of waterfowl.
There's some pretty world-level challenges affecting the world, and here's a guy that's caring about ducks, and, and he puts his vision, his energy, and his pocketbook behind waterfowl.
Earlier you said that, you know, the first mention of him was in North American Waterfowlers.
And Joseph Knapp was the money behind what we, I think, refer to it as the International Wild Duck Census of 1935.
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