The Emporia Gazette

February 14, 2012

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John E. King, who served as Emporia State Teachers College president from 1953 to 1966, died Saturday in a South Carolina hospital at age 94.

King came to Emporia State from the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he had served as provost and president. While at the college — now Emporia State University — King was credited with developing a program that assisted the physically handicapped in pursuing collegiate study. The school’s handicapped-accessible program came into being years before federal legislation required such accessibility. By 1965, according to a Gazette story from Oct. 4 of that year, about 120 students were enrolled in the college’s program for the physically handicapped and the school had beveled curbs and ramps and elevators installed in buildings to accommodate their needs. He was named to the President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped in 1965.

King’s tenure also marked a rapid growth in the college’s enrollment. When he arrived in Emporia, the school’s enrollment was at 959. By June of 1966, when King was about to depart to become president at the University of Wyoming, the enrollment of the Teachers College was at 6,425. He became known for increasing educational opportunities not only for the handicapped, but also for other minorities and for students from rural backgrounds.

Other positions King served in during his tenure at Emporia State included a stint as president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and a spot on the Educational Policies Commission of the National Education Association.

Loren Pennington, a former history professor at Emporia State, said he didn’t get along very well with King “on the face of it,” but had respect and admiration for his work as the college’s president. He said King probably did more for the university than any other Emporia State president, and was extremely adept at dealing with the Kansas Legislature and the Kansas Board of Regents to enhance and improve the college.

“I think that he was the kind of person that appreciated effort from people even if he didn’t get along particularly with them,” Pennington said. “In other words, at heart he was a very tolerant person, if you did your job and if you did what he thought was a benefit to the university, even if he didn’t particularly like you. I don’t think he particularly liked me.”

But Pennington recalled that he once interviewed for a job in Illinois, and after deciding to stay at Emporia State, he received a large bouquet of flowers from King.

“He said, in effect, ‘I’m glad to have you, even if you are a pain in the neck,’” Pennington said.

King most recently lived in West Columbia, S.C., with his wife of 71 years, Glennie Beanland King. He was born in Oklahoma City, Okla., in 1913 and attended North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas, in Denton. He served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II and retired with the rank of commander in 1973. He was aboard the USS Hyde during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.