He competed in two Olympic games for the U.S. team: Mexico City in 1968 and Munich, Germany in 1972.
Knipp, a longtime resident of Orange County, California, died of a heart attack while playing golf in Santa Ana on April 9, 2006.
He is buried in Jefferson Memorial Cemetery in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, a south suburb of Pittsburgh.
At the time of his death he was in training to compete in the "Strongest Man Over 60 Contest".
This biographical article relating to weightlifting in the United States is a stub.