“My brother was built strong, in every way a person can be strong, and he never stopped,” says Rodd Kneeland, describing the often challenging life of his brother, longtime Sonoma resident Todd Kneeland, who died in a fiery roadway accident in Petaluma on Sunday morning, Aug. 16.
Rodd, a firefighter for the Sonoma Valley Fire & Rescue Authority, says that “Todd’s strength and determination was what got him through his paralysis when he was a teenager.
“And it helped get him through everything that came after it.”
The popular and well-known Todd Kneeland, 46, is perhaps best known as the founder of the local Green Team Recycling program, a nonprofit that has raised thousands of dollars for local charities and schools. He was killed on Highway 116, near Adobe Road, apparently after the vehicle he was driving caught fire, and then collided into a tree-lined hillside. The vehicle was the signature passenger bus Kneeland used in his recycling efforts, often stacking the bus to the roof with recycled bottles, cans and newspapers. The cause of the fire and subsequent crash are still under investigation.
The tragic incident brings to an end a life that, according to Rod Kneeland, stood as an illustration of how hardships can be faced and transcended.
“My brother and I know quite a few people in the Valley,” says Rodd, “and everyone was inspired by the way Todd handled tragedies that would have made most other people give up.”
A graduate of Sonoma High School, class of 1987, Todd was a star wrestler and running back on the Dragons football team. According to his brother, college athletics programs from all over the country were already courting his brother when his neck was accidentally broken after a roughhousing incident at a party.
“He was 16,” says Rodd. “It was a fluke, two friends playing around, and he was pretty much paralyzed afterward. They said he’d never walk again, but he overcame that.”
Following years of therapy and surgeries that left a scar running all the way down his back, Todd Kneeland eventually regained the ability to walk, with the assistance of a cane. According to Rodd, it was his brother’s commitment to building his own physical fitness, and the powerful strength he’d attained before the accident with a dedicated weight-training regimen, that made Kneeland’s recovery possible.
“It’s amazing that he wasn’t stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life,” he says. “It’s inspiring that he was able to walk again, but obviously, it was the end of his sports career. He hadn’t planned for something like that, so all his eggs were in one basket. It wasn’t easy for him to recover a sense of what he wanted to do with his life.”
After working for a while doing excavation work for Matheson & Son Excavating, Todd Kneeland started an oil-changing business called the Mobile Stop Oil Shop. But, eventually, his physical condition forced him to make another change.
“He just didn’t have the strength on his neck and back,” his brother says. “And he didn’t have a lot of dexterity in his hands. It was hard for him to grip something with all of his fingers. It got so bad, he went on disability, but instead of sitting around, he started something new.”
By then a father of two – daughter Danika, now 16, and son Kristopher, 19, – Todd Kneeland created the Green Team recycling program, partly as a way to work with his kids on a project that would support their schools. According to Rodd, his brother would train students in the importance of recycling, setting up programs on campus, and at public events. His children were often there at his side, helping to load the bus with castoff materials on their way to the recycling facility.
“He donated all the money back to organizations in the Valley to help them out,” says Rodd Kneeland, stressing that much of the joy of the work was in doing something that served his community, and could be accomplished alongside his son and daughter.
“My brother dedicated his life to his kids.”
In recent years, a hip replacement added to his physical obstacles, but Todd never failed to find ways to contribute.
Rodd says he appreciates the community’s support in the wake of the tragedy.
“A lot of people in Sonoma Valley knew Todd. Since he died, there has been so much love and kindness coming from the community. He was a great guy, a great father, a great friend to so many people.”
A memorial service for Todd Kneeland will be held today, Friday, Aug. 21, at 2 p.m., at Duggan’s Mission Chapel. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the charity of the donor’s choice. A celebration of life will be held sometimes in September, with details to come.
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