Born and raised in Ohio, McKnight served for three years in the United States Navy before moving to Illinois and joining the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, an early civil rights agency. He then became a local organiser for the American Civil Liberties Union before working on affirmative action programmes for the Kennedy administration.
In 1969 he was recruited by Northwestern University to initiate the Centre for Urban Affairs (now Institute for Policy Research), and awarded a professorship in speech and urban affairs. He taught both Obamas and was an early referee for a job seeking Barack Obama.
McKnight advocated for an asset-based community development model, and research carried out by himself and collaborator Jody Kretzmann formed the basis for Building Communities from the Inside Out, an influential and decent selling text on urban development. He also advocated for local control of communities, something that they were far more qualified to do than local or central government.
In 1995 he established the ABCD Institute, initially at Northwestern and then at DePaul University; affiliate institutes were then set up in several other countries.
Despite advancing age McKnight continued to work and write, publishing his last book in 1992. McKnight died on November 2 aged 92.
