Christopher Lee Knapp

Christopher Lee Knapp, known to everyone who loved him as “Toph”, passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of May 13, 2026, at the age of 30, after a long and courageous fight with end-stage liver disease. He was surrounded by the love of his family and friends.

Toph was born on January 2, 1996, and from the very beginning he was a one-of-a-kind soul. He grew up in Tilden, Nebraska, where he wrote short stories for the Norfolk Daily News for a brief period, worked at an antique shop, and was a chef at a nursing home. He moved to Denver, Colorado as a young man and made it his home for the rest of his life, where he pursued a career in business, operations, and administration. He had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Toph was sharp-witted, very funny, creative, artistic, gentle-hearted, observant, and deeply caring about people. He loved sports, everything Nebraska, the NBA, the NFL, and especially the Huskers, Nuggets and Green Bay Packers. He loved making art and drawing. He had a real appreciation for it in other people’s hands too, whether that was wandering through antique stores and galleries or listening to music on vinyl. Toph had started building a respectable art, antiques and record collection of his own. He loved the TV show Survivor, playing video games, watching movies, playing billiards and golf, cooking, cruising in the car, watching UFC, talking on the phone, and traveling. He had a distinct sense of style and a passion for collecting shoes, dress ties, dress shirts, blazers, and hats, a hobby that was completely him and that made the people who knew him smile. He also collected many types of antiques and trading cards (sports and Pokémon). He noticed beauty in everyday moments.

He loved his family and friends above all else. Even when he was the sickest person in the room, Toph would still ask other people how they were doing. Toph never stopped saying funny lines and jokes that made the room laugh. Humor came naturally to him. He was six foot one and somehow the most low-key person in any room he was in.

Toph’s last year was one of the hardest a person can live through. He fought decompensated cirrhosis with a determination that made the people caring for him so proud. He survived a hepatic encephalopathy crisis that put him into a medically induced coma. He survived a catastrophic rollover car accident on March 12, 2026, that left him with multiple fractures and weeks of internal bleeding. He survived weeks in the ICU, a few days in rehab, a serious infection, and a return to the ICU. He kept fighting. Toph wanted to live. Even when the doors were closing one by one, he held onto the open ones, until he couldn’t. At the end, he was graceful, brave, and courageous.

Toph is survived by his father, Mike; his mother, Jody (Todd); his stepmother, Patty; his brothers, Zach (Leah), Neil (Kristen), Joseph (Danielle), Matthew (Britney), Tyler, Cody (Laura) and his sister Tiffany (Jimmy). Neil was also Toph’s caregiver and walked every step of the last year with him. In addition, Toph leaves behind a wide circle of family and friends who loved him greatly, including nieces (Ellie, Harlow, Everly, Zaley and Felina), and nephews (Gavin, Grant, Ryan, Alex and Fox) and many aunts, uncles and cousins across Colorado and Nebraska.

Those who knew Toph well knew he carried more than most. But those struggles were not who he was. They were things he carried alongside everything else that made him Toph: his humor, his curiosity, his generosity, his stubborn streak, and the love he gave back to everyone who showed up for him. He was a truly unique and one-of-a-kind person. The kind the world only made once.

The family wishes to thank the doctors, nurses, and care teams whose compassion gave Toph dignity through every stage of his fight. They also wish to thank the State of Colorado and Health First Colorado Medicaid, without which the care that gave Toph this last year of love and connection with his family would not have been possible.

In keeping with Toph’s final wishes, a celebration of Toph’s life will be held in Colorado on Friday, June 5, 2026, at 3:00 PM. Horan & McConaty, 7577 W 80th Ave, Arvada, CO. A reception will follow. He will then be taken back to Nebraska for burial.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you do something Toph would love: hold the hand of someone who is sick, call someone you have been meaning to call, or tell someone you love them while they can still hear it. If you would like to make a donation in his memory, the family suggests the American Liver Foundation or Colorado Corgis and Friends.

Toph stayed hopeful until the very end, even when the world gave him every reason not to. So let’s carry on Toph’s hope going forward. Hope, and the precious memories he made with every single person who loved him. There has never been another Toph, and there never will be. The universe made exactly one, and we were the lucky ones who got him.

Rest easy, Toph. We love you, always and forever.