OBITUARY
June 30, 1940 - April 29, 2011
Albert Sidney King, age 71, of Winchester, TN
departed this life for God's loving embrace on Friday, April 29, 2011, at Harton
Regional Medical Center, in Tullahoma, TN. Born 1939 in Pampa, TX to John T.
King and Bonnie Lamb King, Albert attended West Texas State University (now West
Texas A&M) receiving a Bachelor of Arts (1962) and a Master's of Business
Administration (1966). He served as a reservist in the National Guard from
1962-1966 and was stationed in Georgia and in Texas obtaining the rank of 1st
Lieutenant. He obtained his Doctorate of Business Administration (D.B.A.) in
1970 from Texas Tech University, and began his professorial career specializing
in Management and Industrial Relations at Kansas State University. After
teaching abroad at U.S. military bases in Germany and England (1974), he joined
the faculty at Northern Illinois University (1974) where he taught management
science, human resources, and strategic management. He was a prolific scholar
publishing over 125 articles in top tier research journals and multiple book
chapters, and he attended professional conferences (too numerous to count) even
as he
served as a journal reviewer and on editorial boards. He served as director and
chair of the Management Department in the College of Business at NIU, where he
remained until he retired.
Upon retirement, moved to Tennessee and Dr. King was a member of the Christian
Lighthouse Full Gospel Church of Tullahoma. He was a member of A.A. in Estill
Springs, Tullahoma and Winchester , Tn. and of the American Legion.
He is survived by his wife, Linda and son Arren King of Winchester;daughters,
Kimi King (Denton, TX) and Karisa King (San Antonio, TX); stepsons, Chris Mannes
(Estill Springs, TN) and Tim Mannes (Cortland, IL); grandchildren; Jason Mannes,
Marlene Meernik, and Parker King; brother, John A. King (Pampa, TX); nephews ,
John Hardy King (Pampa, TX), Stanley King (Sardis, TN), Mark Breeding (Little
Rock, AR), and a niece, Heidi Bettis (Little Rock, AR). Brother Bobby Watkins
will be officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made
to one of the following: Christian Lighthouse Full Gospel Church; Alcoholics
Anonymous (Winchester, TN Group), the NIU Veterans Club or the Disabled Veterans
of America.
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From Linda, His Wife
Al's health has been failing rapidly. The last three weeks of his life he was in so much pain and because of his extremely low blood pressure, they could not give him much pain medication until the last hour of his life. He developed diverticulitis which turned into colitis and from being on the antibiotics for so long he developed C-Diff. The doctors believe he may have had a perforation in his colon that caused toxins to run rampant through his blood. His immune system had been wiped out and the bacteria spread throughout his blood rapidly. He was just too weak to fight it. I am just so lost without him.
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Albert's Biography Posted on the Website
Following
graduation from Pampa High, I immediately enrolled in summer school at
WTSU, Canyon, Tx. and completed the BS and BBA programs with dual degrees
in business management and economics with a minor in military science thru
ROTC. Married in 1961, I
served in the US Army following graduation from WTSU as 1st
Lt., Infantry, and terminated regular army service September 1965.
I completed the MS in Economics and MBA in management at WTSU in
1966 and the PhD with emphasis in management and economics from Texas
Technological University, Lubbock, Tx., 1970.
I
served as Assistant/Associate Professor Management at Kansas State
University, Manahattan, Kansas until 1975 teaching courses in Operations
Research, Management Science, and Statistical Research Methods taking a
wonderful junket to Europe, teaching in Germany, England, and Turkey for
the US Air Force Master of Science program for USAF officers until
returning to a less indulgent reality as Professor of Management Science
and Strategic Management at Northern Illinois University, Dekalb,
Illinois. I did so well and
published so many articles (139 thus far in my career), they made me
Department Chair in the College of Business from 1978-1988 where I became
incredibly proficient in managing an aggregation of anarchists bound
together by a common parking lot (believe me, managing a faculty of PhDs
who pride themselves in the predilection for being experts in teaching
management is no simple task … especially in the professional
bureaucracy of a university environs where paranoia runs rampant.
I returned to the classroom as regular faculty member instructing
and researching subjects in Human Resources and Strategic Management and
Policy until I happily retired in 2002.
Currently,
I am comfortably ensconced in So. Central Tennessee (Davy Crockett
country) engaged part time as an independent contractor for several
national market research firms and full time in raising our 13 year-old
son, Arren Sidney. I
was married in 1961 at WTSU and also have two daughters, Dr. Kimi Lynn
King, age 41, professor of political Science/Constitutional Law,
University of North Texas, Denton, Tx. and Karisa Leigh King, age 33,
staff reporter, San Antonio, Tx. They are real joys!
One
of my greatest discoveries was to provide a rigorous proof to a
troublesome question that has troubled technocrats for some time.
It answers the question as to why professionals make so much more
money than scientists and engineers … the proof comes in the form of two
postulates and one axiom, thus:
1st postulate: Knowledge is Power; K=P
2nd postulate: Time is Money; T=M.
Now
as every scientist/engineer knows axiomatically: Work equals Power x Time,
i.e,. W= P x T. Resolving for
W = P x T, we have: Work = Knowledge x Money, and so: Work/Knowledge =
Money. Therefore, as
knowledge approaches “0”, money approaches infinity at the limit.
In other words, the less you know, the more you make, irrespective
of the amount of work! Whew!
There you have it.
If things get better with age, I must be approaching magnificence. I sure hope this does not count as any part of my 15 minutes to be famous!
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