William Charles King
Lab retiree William Charles King of Bountiful, Utah, died Oct. 9. He was 87.
Born Dec. 15, 1924, in Pendleton, Ore. to William Earl King and Vashti Bell Hoskins, he enlisted in the Army at the age of 17 and served in the Pacific theatre during World War II. He was part of the New Guinea and Philippine Islands campaigns as a combat weather observer. Upon his return from the war, he met and married Helen Marie Culp on June 22, 1947 in Vale, Ore.
Shortly after, while attending college in McMinnville, Ore., they were contacted by Mormon missionaries and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1949.
After receiving his bachelor's degree in physics from Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore. King and his wife Helen moved to Oak Ridge, Tenn. where he received his master's degree in physics at Vanderbilt University on a fellowship from the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.
It was at Oak Ridge, Tenn. where King began his professional career in nuclear physics. In 1952, he relocated his family to Idaho Falls, Idaho to work at the National Reactor Testing Station, where he assisted in the start-up of the Chemical Processing Plant and the Engineering Test Reactor.
He later became leader of a special problem-solving group involving nuclear safety. In 1960, he moved his family to Las Vegas, Nev. where he worked at the Nevada Test Site for LLNL on nuclear ram-jet propulsion and nuclear weapons.
He was a safety adviser to various test group leaders and was manager of the Health and Safety Division. In 1973, the family moved to Livermore to be near the Lab where he worked as a project group leader on highly classified projects as well as group leader in the Hazards Control Department.
He was a charter member of the Health Physics Society and a certified health physicist by the American Board of Health Physics.
King formally retired in December 1987. He and his wife, Helen, moved to Bountiful, Utah the following year. Following retirement, he worked as a health physics consultant for the Department of Energy on safety evaluation of nuclear facilities. In 1991, he gave up consulting to serve a full-time mission with his wife assigned to work at the Hawaii Temple Visitors Center in Laie, Hawaii. He had a great love for the Polynesian people and for missionary service.
King is survived by his four children, William G. King of Lehi, Utah; Leslie C. King of Lawrenceville, Ga.; Kathryn K. Call of Lehi, Utah; and Steven D. King of Bountiful, Utah; a sister, Marilyn Terjeson of Pendleton, Ore.; 17 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, and one grandson, Jonathan Leslie King.
Funeral services will be held Oct. 17 in Bountiful, Utah.
The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the missionary efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
