Lynn Knox, a longtime crusader against poverty and an advocate for better health care and housing, passed away on Aug. 25. Her passing leaves a void for her family and for her colleagues — including on the nonprofit board overseeing The Lund Report and the Oregon Health Forum.
Knox, who served as co-chair of the board, was 70. Up until the end, she tirelessly worked to make the world and her community a better place. Just two days before she died, she attended a retreat at the Rockwood Community Development Corporation to discuss efforts around combating poverty.
Early in Knox’s career, she worked for Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the then-Massachusetts Commissioner of Health. It was Fielding who introduced Knox to the new concept of “social determinants of health,” which he was involved with establishing. This new focus on underlying factors that drive disease, such as poverty and lack of housing, became the North Star of Knox’s life’s work.
She invested more than 40 years in advocacy, both paid and unpaid, connecting anti-poverty and housing efforts with health care to foment community-driven change. The last seven of those years were spent meeting with health care staff around the state as well as state policy committees on behalf of the Oregon Food Bank.
With a bachelor’s degree in journalism and social work, Knox saw The Lund Report and the Oregon Health Forum as valuable partners to raise awareness of these connections and boost health care transparency by providing high-quality information to the public and decisionmakers.
“Finally it feels like the health field may be waking up to the disease machine that is poverty and poor environments,” she wrote in her board application in 2021. “If we hope to reduce chronic disease, then health care and social services need to work together to make it happen.”
She was a truth-teller with an innate sense of urgency to all she did. On the board, she asked probing questions while listening with what her husband, Howard Klink, describes as an active “bullshit detector” — that sometimes would manifest in a skeptical squint if she felt her questions weren’t getting a clear answer.
In meeting after meeting, she would report on her efforts to be an ambassador of The Lund Report with underserved communities and brainstorm ways to support the organization’s mission.
Her co-chair and founder of our organization, Diane Lund, called Knox a devoted leader.
“She was such a kind person and caring in all of her work,” Lund said. “I miss her dearly.”
Board member Mike Francis remembers Knox for her drive to serve others. “She was committed to making the world a better place and we were a small part of that. It was an honor to serve on the board with her,” he said. “What a great soul she was. It really hurts that she’s not here.”
Lynn Ketch, executive director of the Rockwood CDC, has similar memories of Knox, saying her warmth was part of a rare talent for connecting with people and working with diverse communities like Rockwood to help youth and families. Even working as a consultant to the organization, Knox held people accountable, but without judging them, Ketch said.
“We miss her every day. People have been spending time at our team meetings reflecting why she was important to them,” Ketch said, adding that she is hearing a common refrain from coworkers about Knox and her spirit of community:
“She reached out to me, and I felt welcomed. And she listened.”
Knox is survived by her husband, Howard Klink, and her sons, Danny and Ben.
