Philip Gordon King, 92, formerly of Warren and most recently of Morehead City, North Carolina, died last week of natural causes on Monday, February 23, 2015, after a long career of exposing Republican perfidy and human frailty as a staff writer of human interest features for The Valley Reporter. His wife of 50 years, Onriette LeBron King, preceded him in death in 2007.
A resident of Warren from 1988 to 2012, King worked for the paper from 1994 to 2008. He and his wife, Onriette (Lebron) King, shared common cause with the paper's owner, Alvan R. Benjamin, all having worked as advocates of public education since the 1960s.
During his 20 years in Vermont, King was a working member of the Valley Players community theater, active with the League of Vermont Writers and a founding director of the Green Mountain Cultural Center which he served as vice president from 1988 to 1993. For several years he was responsible for lighting and publicizing many of the center's exhibitions, workshops and productions.
Educated for the theater, King worked for more than 10 years as a member of Actors Equity and a factotum for more than 50 summer stock stage productions. He was Tennessee Williams' stage manager at the Houston Playhouse and served for two years as production stage manager of the Grand Rapids Civic Light Opera Association in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
King was a WWII veteran and served his final year of military service in Paris and Weisbaden as the civilian personnel officer for 1,500 USO Camp Shows entertainers in Europe. He was honorably discharged as a captain of infantry in 1946.
Trained as a publicist by the CBS Television Network in Hollywood, King worked as a press agent for Walter Cronkite, Robert Young, Ann Sothern and Fred MacMurray in the 1950s. King was sent to New York as vice president of the Pat McDermott PR Agency and directed media relations for TV programming sponsored by Chevrolet. From 1961 to 1965 he directed press information services for CBS Television's flagship station, WCBS-TV in New York City.
The National Education Association named King manager of its New York Editorial Information Center in 1965. He moved to Washington, DC, in 1968 to direct NEA's press, radio and television relations, a position he held until 1983. Several key milestones in his nearly 18-year career with the NEA included the merger of the teachers union with affiliates of the African-American Teachers Association in 17 southern and border states, growth of the union from one to three million members and an increase in the average annual salary of a public school teacher's pay from $4,000 to $40,000.
He incorporated King Communications in 1983, a public relations agency, and worked from a Watergate office in Washington, DC, until 1988. He represented clients including the NEA, Phi Delta Kappa International, Prentice Hall Publishing and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. His success as a PR counselor earned King biographical recognition in Marquis' Who's Who in American and Who's Who in the World through 2012.
King is survived by his three children: Gordon R.J. King of Salt Lake City, Utah; Philip D. King (wife Cindy van Dijk) of Port Republic, Maryland; and Dr. Bernardine V. King of Novato, California; and four grandchildren.
A self-described transcendental pantheist, King will have his cremated remains scattered in the Boundary Waters Wilderness of northern Minnesota where he was born and raised at Ely. King wanted no memorial church service; however, his family suggests that friends celebrate his life by visiting his favorite Valley haunts on his birthday, April 11.
Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Mad River Valley Ambulance Service, P.O. Box 305, Waitsfield, VT 05673, mrvas.org, 802-496-8888; Mad River Valley Senior Citizens, 5308 Main Street, Waitsfield, VT 05673, 802-496-2543; or the Mad River Valley Community Fund, mrvcommunityfund.org, P.O. Box 353, Waitsfield, VT 05673, 802-496-3638.
