2016 Utah Knight of the Year has more than 45 years of service with the fraternal organization

Friday, Jun. 10, 2016

DRAPER — David Loftus was awarded the title of Knight of the Year at the 109th Utah State Knights of Columbus Awards Banquet May 7 in Park City. 

For the annual award, each council may nominate one of its members whom they feel has made significant contributions to the Knights and who shows pride in the accomplishments he has made. 

“We could spend an entire awards banquet on this category alone,” said Jerry Hanten, State Deputy. “Every Knight submitted by their councils is a man of dedication and service.” 

Loftus became a Knight of Columbus in 1970. A member of the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Council 12181 at St. John the Baptist Parish, he has been married to his best friend, Margaret, for 55 years; they have three grown children. 

It was Margaret who urged Loftus to get involved in the Knights of Columbus, said Hanten during the banquet. 

In the past 45 years, Loftus has helped start at least 10 Knights of Columbus councils; he is listed as a charter member in six of them. He has served as a Grand Knight and District Deputy in several states.

“His first ‘Keep Christ in Christmas’  billboard was in 1973, and he has been sponsoring this program ever since,” said Hanten. “In Connecticut he served as State Membership chairman for five years and in 1986 as the co-chair of the Special Olympics Committee.” 

“It wasn’t until the second meeting I attended in 1970 that I was appointed the recorder,” Loftus said. “A few months later I was also appointed as the Family chairman and responsible for 10 different ethnic dinner events for the members and guests.”

While living in the East and selling insurance, Loftus had numerous job transfers and was able to further his Knights of Columbus career, he said. 

Starting in 1973 in Tolland, Conn., he was the only existing Knight at a meeting where the priest of the parish was trying to start a Knights of Columbus Council, he said. 

Margaret coaxed him into helping; it was a hot and muggy summer evening, and “my motivation was air conditioning,” said Loftus, who became the founding Grand Knight of that parish’s council.

Loftus went on to introduce the “Breath of Life” service program, a CPR training project that won the State Community Service award. He and the Knights held a Christmas tree sale to raise funds for the new council to sponsor a “Keep Christ in Christmas” billboard on the Hartford to Boston interstate that led to similar billboards that Loftus sponsored for more than 40 years, including here in Utah, he said.

When Loftus moved to Coventry, Conn., he joined the local Knights of Columbus council and served as Connecticut State Membership co-chair for five years, he said. “During my tenure we commissioned three models of the Supreme Office as traveling trophies; the largest trophy was presented to the Knights’ museum, where it remains on display.” 

In 1986, Loftus was asked by the Connecticut State Deputy to co-chair the Knights’ involvement with the Special Olympics committee. While calling Bingo, Loftus implemented the idea of allowing the Special Olympic athletes to run their own Bingo games, which is the protocol today, he said.

After moving his family to Utah in 1990, Loftus served as deputy of a Knights of Columbus district that included south Salt Lake City and St. George. 

When his company downsized and he was laid off in 1993, he began a 16-year career as a Knights of Columbus field agent; for 10 of those years, he was the only agent, he said. 

In 1995 as a field agent, Loftus wrote 165 policies; only 50 were expected, he said; he became a member of the Supreme Knight’s Club that year.

Loftus is now involved in the Ambulatory Medical Items Exchange, which helps people who have usable medical items such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes and crutches to donate them to people in need.

“Being a Knight of Columbus has given my wife and me a social life and also fulfillment of our religion,” said Loftus, who has been a minister of Holy Communion for about 40 years and a minister of the sick for the past 15 years. He also is active in many projects at St. John the Baptist Parish.