Stephen Shepard Knipp, who headed his family-owned architectural millwork business, died of cancer Wednesday at his Guilford home. He was 83.

Born in Baltimore and raised in Ruxton and Guilford, he was the son of Howard F. Knipp, senior partner of John C. Knipp & Sons, an antiques and furniture sales firm on Charles Street, and Lubelle Stephen Shepard. He was raised by his paternal grandmother after his mother died when he was 3.

He was a 1951 graduate of Gilman School.

He received a bachelor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania, then applied to the Naval Officers Candidate School in Newport, R.I. The course took five months, and he was then assigned to the USS William T. Powell, a destroyer escort. He spent two years on the ship, serving as radio officer and then operations officer.

Mr. Knipp then transferred to U.S. Naval Support Activity and spent two years in London, based on Grosvenor Square in the Mayfair section.

“These were the two best years of my early life, as my jobs were interesting and required no stress,” Mr. Knipp wrote in a memoir.

While at a London party, he met his future wife, Marion Hazebroek, then a student at the Lady Margaret Hall College at Oxford University.

He left the Navy in 1960 and returned to Baltimore, where he joined his father and brother at Knipp & Co. He initially lived in Loch Raven Village, and then bought a home in Annapolis Roads.

“My duties at Knipp & Co. ranged from estimating to sales and project management,” he wrote. “I was very much involved in sales and marketing.”

The family architectural millwork business was located in a plant in the Brooklyn section of South Baltimore.

The firm had been the woodworking contractor for removal, reworking and reinstallation of all the woodwork in the White House, and also all of the cabinetry in the House and Senate chambers in the U.S. Capitol.

“We were also involved in the fitting out of residences for the rich and famous in New York,” he wrote in his memoir. Mr. Knipp regularly traveled to apartment houses along Fifth and Park avenues in Manhattan, where he worked with architects and designers.

He also worked with members of the Ziff family, publishers of Popular Mechanics, on their Westchester County, N.Y., home. Mr. Knipp said he liked the project because the family appreciated fine woods and specified their use throughout the home.

His company closed in 1989 and he worked to sell the Brooklyn plant. After that, “I more or less retired to our home in Lakehurst in Baltimore County.”

In that house, he and his wife “lived for 42 years and raised our three children.”

In retirement, Mr. Knipp devoted himself to volunteer work. He was involved with the Kidney Foundation of Maryland and the parish council of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.

He also worked the visitors' desk at the Walters Art Museum and the Baltimore Visitors Center on Light Street.

“He knew so much about Baltimore and he was such an affable guy, the tourists loved him,” said his wife.

He also became involved with GEDCO-CARES, an ecumenical group formed from volunteers of North Baltimore and Govans neighborhood churches. He worked with families facing an eviction — and handled eviction prevention payments. He also assisted with payments for prescriptions and groceries.

A funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church, 740 N. Calvert St., where he was a member.

In addition to his wife of 57 years, survivors include a son, David Shepard Knipp of Baltimore; and two daughters, Carolyn Knipp and Mary Catherine Irving, both of Baltimore; eight grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

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jacques.kelly@baltsun.com