In Tribute to Dave Knopf

DAVID W. KNOPF

2026 March

For the past 24 years, the art director of Advocate has been David Knopf.   It is with the greatest sadness that we report David’s passing on December 25.  Dave, who was 63, had been with our company for 25 years, before we even began publishing Advocate for CAALA in 2002.  To say he was reliable would be a gross understatement – he never missed a printing deadline for Advocate or any of our other magazines.  More than that, Dave always kept his zany sense of humor no matter the deadline pressures.  Customers would often make it a point to tell me how much they enjoyed working with him in designing their advertising.

Dave earned a BA in fine arts from Principia College (Illinois) in 1984 and then returned to his native Escondido where he worked for various print media and was the principal graphic designer for the California Center for the Arts.  He loved the lore of flying and spending time with “old guys” who had flown in WW2.   He was also an avid genealogist, spending hours at libraries and online tracing his German roots.  He loved birds, keeping several Amazon parrots at the home he shared with his long-time partner, Debra Flax, who had passed away earlier in 2025.

To appreciate Dave’s work, take a minute and look back through the years of Advocate covers at www.advocatemagazine.com.

Dave, we all miss you.  A lot.

-- Richard Neubauer, Publisher