Achievements Alumni Achievement Awards The Saint John’s University Alumni Achievement Award is given to outstanding alumni in seven Reunion classes annually. Recipients are nominated by classmates, with final selection made by the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Congratulations to the 2021 award recipients!
John A. Knapp ’71
John G. Asmussen ’76
John Knapp has made an indelible impact on Minnesota’s legal community and beyond.
A gifted accountant with a passion for education, John Asmussen devoted his career to public service.
A highly respected attorney with a long list of state and national honors, Knapp helped Minneapolis-based Winthrop & Weinstine grow into one of the Minnesota’s premier law firms, serving on its first board of directors and chairing its Legislative and Regulatory Practice Group for more than 30 years.
Asmussen graduated from Saint John’s University cum laude in Accounting and worked for the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, becoming the Deputy Legislative Auditor and serving on the boards of several state and national accounting organizations. He received the William Smith Gold Medal in 1997 for earning the nation’s highest score on the Certified Independent Auditor Exam.
He invested himself in the legal and public affairs professions, serving on state and national committees, publishing and speaking extensively, and mentoring law students. Knapp, whose areas of practice include campaign finance and election law, served as general counsel for the host committee for the 2008 Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities. Knapp also invests deeply in his community. He chaired Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Task Force and helped fellow Johnnie Tim Marx ’79 secure $100 million for the new center in St. Paul. He also provides leadership in organizations including the Guthrie Theater, the Citizens League, the Alzheimer’s Association of Minnesota and North Dakota and the Nature Conservancy of Minnesota and the Dakotas.
That year, he became Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ Executive Director of Internal Auditing and embarked on furthering his own education. He attained a doctorate in education policy and administration from the University of Minnesota, retired from Minnesota State and continued to advise higher education institutions on strategies for assessing and improving graduation rates. Asmussen poured himself into research about how and why students learned, how their personal situations impacted their education and how colleges and universities could respond. He died unexpectedly in February 2020, but Asmussen’s contributions to higher education – and to those who knew him – keep his legacy alive.
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