Dr. Timothy D. King, 1949-2007
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.
2008 Diana M. Schnuth.
sheryls says...
Mon 12 Feb 2007 | 10:22PMsheryls: *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*