Our editor-in-chief, Grace F. Knoche, died peacefully at her home in Altadena, California, on February 18, 2006. As editorial assistant to James A. Long, founder of Sunrise, Grace was central to the magazine from its inception in 1951 and became editor on Mr. Long’s death in 1971. For 55 years Sunrise has been shaped by her intelligence, wide-ranging interests, feeling for language, and desire to promote universal brotherhood as a practical reality in human life.
Grace was born February 15, 1909 at the international headquarters of the Theosophical Society, then at Point Loma, California. There she attended the schools founded by Katherine Tingley, receiving a PhD from Theosophical University in 1944. In the 1930s and ’40s she worked on the headquarters staff in the Press and in the secretarial and editorial departments. She also taught violin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Hebrew at Theosophical University, and painting and sculpture to younger students at the Lomaland School. After serving as private secretary to two leaders of the Theosophical Society, Colonel Arthur Conger and James A. Long, she became leader herself in 1971. Besides her many magazine articles, she authored three books: The Mystery Schools, To Light a Thousand Lamps, and the forthcoming Theosophy in the Qabbalah.
(From Sunrise magazine, April/May 2006; copyright © 2006 Theosophical University Press)