During his career with the Canadian Foreign Service, Andrew Kniewasser lived in five different nations and visited dozens more. He also led the Canadian counterpart of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and managed Expo ’67, a huge ‘world’s–fair’ event.
In all those roles, Andrew had to make many decisions that affected his nation and its people. Recently he made another important, more personal, decision: to become a soldier (member) of The Salvation Army in Clearwater, Fla., where he and his wife spend several months a year.
In one way, Andrew’s decision isn’t surprising; Christian faith and standards have always been part of his life.
“As a child, I prayed at my mother’s knee,” he says. “And, along with the rest of the family, I attended Sunday school, morning worship, and evening service each Sunday at the United Church of Canada in Ottawa.”
Foreign Service or football?
Andrew had many Methodist missionaries in his family, and hearing about their service in Korea and China gave him an idea of what he wanted to be.
“I grew up with these relatives coming back home to visit quite frequently, and as a young man, I was enchanted by their stories of what it was like to live abroad,” Andrew said. “So I decided at an early age—probably at about 10 years—to go into foreign service. Also, at an early age, I decided I would keep up my connection with the Church.”
He fulfilled both commitments.
In school, Andrew was also involved with sports in school. He played football for Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
“In those days we played both offense and defense, so I played offensive end and corner linebacker. We had our team photo taken every year, and every year my hands were in plaster because the opposing team went first for my hands. But I learned to catch passes even with my hands in casts.”
In 1948, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League drafted Andrew, but he chose not to go pro.
“I had to make a decision whether to continue making my living by hammering other people—and being hammered—or to get on with my foreign service. So I left football and applied to join the diplomatic corps.”
The big interview
But football was on the minds of the people who interviewed Andrew for his first foreign service job.
“We spent the best part of half an hour talking football, and then the chairman said, ‘Gentlemen, don’t you think we should ask Andrew some other questions?’
Someone asked him whether he thought Canada should go on the gold standard. But that started a fierce argument among the panel members.
“I never got to answer the question, but I was hired,” Andrew says.
His first posting was to Athens as “third secretary.”
“Lowest man on the totem pole,” he observes with a grin.
By that time, Andrew was already married. A distinguished artist, sculptor, and journalist, Jacqueline Delaney had served as Canada’s first female Foreign Service officer. The couple didn’t meet on the job, however, but on a ski slope in Ottawa.
The eldest of their four children was born in Athens; the others were born in Beirut, Lebanon; Caracas, Venezuela; and Paris, France. Everywhere they went, Andrew and Jacqueline immersed themselves in the culture.
“We thought it important to learn both the languages and the customs of the people among whom we served,” Andrew said. They both speak five languages fluently and can communicate in several more.
Promotions came quickly for Andrew. By the time he was posted to Paris in 1960, at age 34, he had the title of counselor, the highest rank possible for a nonpolitical official. Andrew and Jacqueline expected to spend the rest of their lives in France.
Expo ’67 at just 36
But in 1963, the Canadian government decided that an international exhibition would be held four years later in Montreal. Andrew applied to be in charge. To his great surprise, his bid was accepted.
“I was only 36 at the time, and I tried to figure out why a young fellow like me should be given that difficult job.” He added, with a twinkle in his eye, “I think the reason was that everybody else turned it down.”
Expo ’67 was a huge success. In 1968, for his work on Expo and his career in the Foreign Service, Andrew received the Order of Canada, the highest honor the nation can bestow upon a citizen. He says the award really should have been given to Jacqueline.
“She was very much a part of our success in the Foreign Service,” he says. “I could never have achieved it alone.”
Even for a “power couple” like Andrew and Jacqueline, life has not always been easy. Their first child, Susan, suffered a serious illness and died just after her first birthday. And raising children in foreign cultures presented problems. But Andrew and Jacqueline always found strength in their faith.
After Expo, Andrew wanted to return to the diplomatic service, but because the children were in high school, he requested to stay at home. (By this time the family had lived in 18 different houses.) He was named assistant deputy minister of industry, trade and commerce, then senior deputy minister.
Applying faith to business
When Andrew left the Foreign Service in 1972, the government sent him to Toronto to be president of the Investment Association.
“That was supposed to be for two or three years,” Andrew says, “but I stayed for 20, until I retired in 1992.”
In this sensitive position, more than ever, Andrew knew that truth and honesty must be his guiding principles.
“Business leaders often would come to me and say, ‘I want to do the right thing; but things are so complicated, it’s hard to know right from wrong.’ And my response always was, ‘I’ve never had that problem.’ ”
Andrew remained active in church throughout his career. He became an elder in the United Church of Canada, formed in 1925 when the Methodists, Congregationalists, and some Presbyterians joined together. He also served as chairman of the board of his local congregation.
As a senior government official and a dedicated Christian, Andrew was asked to lead the Prayer Breakfast movement in Canada. In 1985, he addressed the National Prayer Breakfast at Parliament in Ottawa.
Coming to Clearwater
Six years ago, in retirement, Andrew and Jacqueline visited Clearwater for the first time. He attended a Methodist church at first, then one Sunday decided to visit the local Salvation Army corps (church).
Andrew was captivated by the friendliness of the people and appreciated the messages of the corps officer (pastor).
The next winter the Kniewassers returned to Clearwater, and Andrew took a class to learn about becoming a Salvation Army soldier (church member). Although he didn’t enroll at that time, back in Canada he began attending the Ottawa Woodroffe Corps, where he became an adherent, someone who makes the Army his or her church home but is not a full member.
Early in 2009, the Clearwater Corps offered a course called Salvation Army 101. In ten 45–minute sessions, corps members explained the doctrines, programs, services, and distinctives of the Army.
“I was deeply impressed by the sincerity and intelligence and decency of the presentations and the presenters,” Andrew said. “So I made a decision to become a soldier.” He was publicly enrolled in April 2009.
Joining this Army of God actually brought Andrew back to his roots. His maternal grandmother had been a devout Salvationist in England beforeimmigrating to Canada, where she met and married her Methodist husband. Their son, who became Andrew’s father, was a well–known surgeon and, though he maintained his Methodist affiliation, he served for many years on the medical staff of the Salvation Army’s Grace Hospital in Ottawa.
“In those days (the 1920s and 1930s), Grace Hospital was the only place in Ottawa where people could go and be looked after, with no questions asked,” Andrew says. “Major Mae Dodge, the hospital administrator, and my father became living legends there.”
Now, many years later, Andrew is still crossing borders—from Canada to the United States and back—and says he feels very comfortable in his new spiritual home, The Salvation Army, where he continues to live a life of service—to the Lord.
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