Robert Knoll was a learner until the end.

Wednesday, as he lay in a hospital bed, Knoll passed time by quoting the poet Robert Louis Stevenson and asking nurses for their life stories.

He left the hospital for good that afternoon, returning to his Lincoln home to be with family.

Thursday evening, with his wife holding one hand, his daughter holding the other and his granddaughter at his feet, Knoll died. He was 86.

Knoll may be gone, but his impact on the University of Nebraska — where he was an English professor for 40 years and later authored NU’s definitive history, “Prairie University” — remains strong, say family, friends and former colleagues.

“My father gave his life to the University of Nebraska and he gave his imagination to the University of Nebraska,” said one of Knoll’s three children, daughter Elizabeth.

Knoll worked to instill in others a love of learning, a curiosity about life’s smallest details, she said.

So passionate was her father, Elizabeth recalled, that his other daughter, Sarah, once cracked: “Oh, Dad, does even bread have to be interesting?”

Friends sometimes asked if the Knoll children had ever enrolled in one of their father’s classes.

Every night at the dinner table, they’d say.

Knoll was well-respected by students and faculty alike for his expertise in literature. He was especially fond of teaching Shakespeare, his daughter said, and often acted out plays for his students.

He loved teaching undergraduates, she said, helping open their minds to new ideas and literature.

“He liked encouraging them to see why (literature) could be something that they could care about,” she said.

Born in Liberty, Knoll graduated Phi Beta Kappa from NU in 1943. He joined the faculty in 1950, the same year he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Upon his retirement in 1990, he was named a Woody and Paula Varner Professor of English. Knoll also had been a George Holmes Distinguished Professor, an honor reserved for only the campus’ most esteemed faculty.

But even after his retirement, teaching and learning continued for Knoll. He traveled extensively with his wife, Virginia, to places like Mexico and Europe. He devoured books and newsmagazines and constantly shared his discoveries with family and friends. Students and colleagues endowed a lecture series in his name at the English department that continues today.

In 1995, Knoll published one of his best-known works, “Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska,” regarded across campus as NU’s definitive history.

Knoll had been in ill health for more than a year, Elizabeth Knoll said, enduring quadruple bypass surgery in December 2007 and suffering a stroke in March 2008 that left him temporarily unable to speak, read or write. He also had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In announcing Knoll’s death to faculty and staff Friday, Chancellor Harvey Perlman called Knoll “a unique individual whose passion for and understanding of this university were unmatched.”

“He was during his time with us larger than life and he remains so,” Perlman wrote.

NU President J.B. Milliken also had kind words for his former teacher and mentor.

“When I was an undergraduate, Robert Knoll changed my life through his wonderful teaching and wise advice,” Milliken said in a statement. “And while I count him among the most important people in my life, I know what he did for me, he did for countless others. He was one of the university’s — and Nebraska’s — treasures.

“He will be greatly missed, but his many, many friends will always remember his keen mind, sharp wit and warm smile.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.