Timothy D. King 57, of Bowling Green, Ohio died Friday (February 9, 2007) at Wood County Hospital. He was born July 3, 1949 in Cheverly, Maryland to Thomas & Annie (Kilburn) King. He was married to Patricia (Brown) on December 19, 1970; they were married for thirty years.
He is survived by his sons, David (Hillary) of Chicago and Brian of Denver; daughter, Ellen King of Bowling Green; former wife and close friend Patricia; brother, William (Patty) of Piedmont, Ca.; and special friend Carol Berman of Orchard Park, N.Y.
Mr. King was the Associate Director of Residence Life at B.G.S.U. He received his BA from Macalester College, Master’s (1973) & PHD (1978) from the University of Minnesota. He was a leader with Cub Scout pack #358 and a member of the Maumee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation. He was an avid cook, a loving father and was known throughout the community for his generosity and witty humor.
(read the full obituary at Dunn Funeral Homes)
I heard this morning from Rob Wozniak, via work e-mail. I sent the message on to Sheryl and Amy, and later saw that Beth had sent me the news via Gmail. Eric Fertel also heard and e-mailed me at home about it, and I later learned that the news had reached Colvey, Kendra, Pip, Jamie, and virtually anyone else I would have told. I did tell Tim Schavitz once I got home from the visitation in BG, though. I don’t think I missed anyone…
It was sudden news for everyone, even those who still worked with him on a regular basis. Literally, one day he was admitted to the hospital, and the next day he was gone.
The news came at a strange time for me, because I’d just been remembering everything I’d learned while working for Tim at Residential Computing Connection (RCC), and coming to a new appreciation of the time I spent as a student supervisor. I had actually been planning to shoot Tim an e-mail, since I’m going to be job-hunting again soon, and I’ve always thought of him as one of my star references.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda, didn’t.
At the visitation this evening, I only knew three people: Sean Ward, who was a Freshman or Sophomore at the time I graduated; Mike Hachtel, who was second-in-command to Tim when I left; and Jim Kirkum, who was my first supervisor at RCC and now continues to work for BGSU in Information Technology Services. Still, I’m glad I went, despite the fact that I spent twice as much time on the road as I did at the visitation.
I think everyone was still pretty shell-shocked; no one I spoke to was very keen on talking about Tim. I mentioned that Aaron wanted to express his condolences to anyone who remembered who he was, and that the thing that Aaron remembers most about Tim is the RCC picnic we had at Tim’s house, where Tim had some fantastic apple sausages on the grill. That got some smiles, and prompted Jim to mention Tim’s infamous crab story:
So, a guy walks into a restaurant in New England. He asks an employee, “Do you serve crabs here?” The employee answers, “Sir, we serve everybody!” [insert rimshot here]
The crab joke was initially used as a catch phrase during a training session, to emphasize the necessity of good and polite customer service. It ended up being a rally cry of sorts, and the quintessential example of all of Tim’s horribly corny jokes.
Mike mentioned, after Jim brought up the crab story, that the student web developers gave the RCC intranet page a black background, and put “In memory of Tim King” at the top… with a little crab graphic beside it.
Tim was literally the kind of guy who brightens up a room just by walking in. That sounds so cliché, but it’s really true. You never knew what kind of bizarre humor would come out of his mouth, or what brain-bending logistical idea regarding the computer labs. I can count on one hand the number of times I heard him swear in the over four years I worked with him, and on two hands the number of times I saw him genuinely angry, if that.
It’s not that *I’ll* miss him, so much as the fact that *no one* will ever get to experience Tim King again. He was just a great guy all around, and he will be sorely missed.
sheryls: *eating ice cream in boxer shorts and fleece knee-socks with feet on desk while on-shift*
Tim: *walking in*
sheryls: *sitting up straight*
Tim: SHERYL!
sheryls: meep.
Tim: Show me your tongue ring.
sheryls: *sticks tonuge out*
Tim: AWESOME. *leaves*
A current student, Lindsay Mauldin, told this story in her online condolences, and I can totally see this scene in my head:
One day, Tim made a comment about a recipe for marshmallows that he had aquired, and I responded with “I didn’t know you could make marshmallows”. Since I didn’t finish my sentence with ‘at home’, Tim quickly started to make fun of me, asking if I thought they grew on trees. From that day forward, whenever I saw him, he would ask my how my marshmallow tree was coming along. I had planned on giving him a small plant with a marshmallow tied to it upon my graduation, however I suppose I should have listened when Tim always stressed ‘dont put off to tomorrow what you can accomplish today.’
Ummm… This is the first I’m hearing of it -course I don’t talk to many people from BG anymore. It’s kind of a big shock. I actually talked to him about a week before I ended up getting seriously ill. And, since I was pretty much doped up on meds for the past 3 months it really feels like I talked to him last week.
me: Hey Tim, it’s me, Jaime from RCC.
him: Huh? Who?
me: You don’t remember? Jaime? You know shortish with long redish hair, royal pain in the a$$.
him: Well, of course I can place the name and face but I can’t seem to recognize the voice.
The conversation went on for like 10 minutes where I had to feed him bits of memories that only he and I shared before he believed it was me and not some other crazy girl like sheryls pulling his leg.
Finally I explained _exactly_ what was going on with me and where I was and what I was doing. By the end of the conversation he seemed to be comfortable and honestly accepting of my current situation.
We didn’t part on the best of terms so I wasn’t even sure he’d stay on the line with me as long as he did. I think that’s why we both bunted heads a lot; we were both very passionate and (at least some of the times) stubborn people. I am happy that he was also an understanding and loving person as well.
jamie!! i was going to email you (since you, Nick, Amy, Diana and Colvey are the only email addresses i have from RCC) but i thought you might be mad at me because i never sent you pickles. i’m sorry I never sent you pickles. i hope you’re feeling okay.
Jaime – I’m sorry. I thought Beth had e-mailed you, since it looked like we were both copied on the e-mail she sent.
Oh, and I like your description of yourself. Very apropo. 😉
Sheryl! It’s ok, I’m not mad at all. I didn’t send you that chocolate either, I think I ate it (I’m sorry too.) I can’t seem to have chocolate in the house for very long (damn hormones!)
You were right, Diana, I got the Email from Beth about 10 minutes after I already posted this, oops.
I am really happy I was able to talk to Tim before this happened. I think the two of us needed some closure to our relationship; we hadn’t spoken in over 6 years.
As for me, I came down with Guillian Barre Syndrome just after I talked to him. I was paralyzed from the knees down for 1 1/2 months. I’m better now, I can walk with a cane but I’m having pretty bad residual pain which I’m told may last for years. Urg. I’m trying to remain positive, nonetheless.
Btw, I pulled off of my livejournal account because I was having difficulty with some local friends. It had nothing to do with pickles, Sheryl 😉 I may set up a new account eventually when I feel the time’s right. I’ll let you guys know.
please do, Jaime 🙂
i just looked up Guillain-Barr? syndrome and that looks like some seriously unpleasant stuff – i’m glad you’re doing better.
Once, my sister couldnt move her left hand for a few months, and then it hurt for a while and went back to normal. i wonder if she had something similar (not exactly the same, but similar). the doctors couldnt diagnose it.
aww, that picture brought a tear to my eye. a sad day for all in the rrrrrCC clan.
It was nice to see a picture of Tim up, as we tried to find one ourselves at the office on the server, but really didn’t find much. (Yes, I’m now the ResNet Coordinator, Hachtel is in charge of labs, and Jason… well, he’s still Jason.)
Diana, great write up about Tim.