Edwin Knight, a marine engineer, was a native of Ohio and a descendant of one of the old families of that state of Irish lineage.

Elva Knight was a daughter of pioneer settlers of Iowa and of Kansas, of English and Irish descent.

[1] Knight attended school in Minneapolis, Kansas and later Washington state, attending high school in Port Townsend and enrolling in the University of Washington, where he earned a Bachelor of Art's degree in 1902.

[1][2] Knight worked as an assistant in the chemistry department at University of Washington (190–01) and as instructor for the 1901–02 school year.

[1][2] In 1927, Knight became head of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture.