News Obituaries |

Sally Ransom-Knecht, nursing executive whose experience with a deadly crime in Baltimore led her to become a victim’s advocate, dies

Sally Ransom-Knecht, former director of nursing at Maryland General Hospital who became an advocate for victims after her husband was killed in Baltimore, died June 15 of complications from a fall. She was 92 and a resident of Edenwald Senior Living in Towson.

Born in New York City, she was the daughter of Walter Niedhammer, a phone company worker, and Selma, a nurse. She earned degrees at the old Methodist Hospital of Brooklyn School of Nursing and New York University. She attended the Johns Hopkins University for postgraduate work.

“Nursing was a family affair; her mother and two sisters were all graduate nurses,” said an autobiographical sketch. “She practiced nursing first as a staff nurse and then as instructor at Methodist Hospital before she became director of nursing at Bethany Deaconess Hospital in Brooklyn.”

“She was wise and encouraging to everyone. Even on a bad day she put others first,” said her granddaughter, Anna Ransom.

She moved to Baltimore in 1963 to become the director of the School of Nursing and Nursing Service at Maryland General Hospital, now known as University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus.

“She not only led the patient care staff, [but] frequently made rounds to talk to ‘forgotten staff’ on the night shift and also directed the faculty in the School of Nursing program,” said her granddaughter. “In the 12 years she was there, 471 students graduated, and many continued to have contact with her as they grew in their profession.”

In 1968 she married the Rev. Dr. Lewis F. Ransom, then the district superintendent of the Baltimore Southeast District of Baltimore Conference of the United Methodist Church.

She joined her husband at the Bel Air United Methodist Church in Harford County and then Woodside Methodist Church in Silver Spring. She commuted to Baltimore for two years until she became the director of nursing at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C.

When her husband retired in 1977, they moved back to Towson and she became assistant nursing director at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital and was later director of education.

For 28 years, she sat on the board of the United Methodist Church and helped raise $18 million for a building project. The church’s welcome center and archives building are named for her.

In a 2015 Towson Times article, she said Edenwald, on whose board she sat, didn’t spend a lot of money on advertising and promotion. “You won’t find us doing a lot of advertising because we don’t need to. Our residents are our advertisement,” she told the paper.

She was a volunteer at Stella Maris Hospice and Gilchrist Hospice in Towson and also spoke with children who experienced significant loss.

In 1987 her husband, the Rev. Ransom, was murdered in a robbery as he returned to his car after visiting patients at the University of Maryland Medical Center in downtown Baltimore.

In her autobiography, she wrote, “[I] was determined to help other survivors of homicide as they dealt with their grief and the Judicial System who in those days was not sensitive to survivors’ needs.”

She co-founded the Families of Homicide and Drunk Drivers Support Group.

In 1991 she received an award from the U.S. Department of Justice.

She also worked with others to see legislation through the Maryland General Assembly to allow victims of crime an opportunity to provide impact statements at judicial sentencings.

She retired from full-time nursing in 1991 and became a camp nurse at the West River Center near Annapolis.

In 1992 she married Frank A. Knecht Jr., the retired buildings director at MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, where they both worked.

In her autobiographical sketch, she wrote: “Her life took on a new meaning and purpose when she married. … Together they bought a house in Timonium and spent time traveling, using their joint talents helping others with yard work, repairs and moving.”

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Towson United Methodist Church at 501 Hampton Lane.

In addition to her granddaughter, survivors include two sisters, Janet Stanton, of Poughkeepsie, New York, and Susan Haynal, of Riverhead, New York; a brother, Walter Niedhammer, of Whiting, New Jersey; a stepson, Charles Knecht, of Arbutus; a stepdaughter, Ruth Farrell, of Marriottsville; a grandson, Kevin M. Ransom, of Parkville; nine step-grandchildren; and 15 step-great-grandchildren. Her second husband, Frank A. Knecht Jr., died in 2022.