I would like to submit, my husband, Charles "Dave" King, for your Distinguished Alumni honor. This past month, we received a letter from Phil Owens, Knox Athletic Director, stating that David was to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on 29 January 2011.

David began playing sports at a very young age with encouragement from his Grandfather. He received awards in baseball for having the "highest batting average", and received the "Most Valuable Player" award.

He attended Knox High school from 1968-1971. He was an outstanding athlete and played baseball for 2 years, football for 3 years, and basketball all 4 years.

A guard in basketball, David was also Co-Captain of the team, and averaged 14.9 points per game. David was well known for his outside shooting, and if a player had been given 3 points for outside shots back then, I am sure his average would be higher.

Always playing as a starter, David helped lead the basketball team to win the Sectional Crown in 1971. It was noted as one of the best seasons (21-3) in the history of the school.

David was also the President and Vice President of the K-Club during his sophomore to senior years. He served as Vice President of the Student Council. David was on the All Sectional team his Junior and Senior years. He was named to the North West Hoosier All-Conference Basketball team, twice, and received the Bausch & Lomb science award. He won the "Free Throw" award, twice, and was voted as "Best All Around" in his senior year and Prom King in his junior year.

After attending Knox High, David earned his degree in Physical Education, with a minor in Biology, from Indiana University, on a sports scholarship. While there he was credited with saving lives when an apartment complex caught fire near the school.

After graduation, he went on to teach Biology, Life Science, and General Science at Greenwood High School. While there he also coached football, basketball, and track.

Shortly after, he began working for several oil industry safety companies including
Secorp Industries, Total Safety, Inc, and Wellsafe, Inc. Today David works as a Senior Safety Consultant for Exxon/Mobil Oil Company. He has worked in many overseas countries including Dubai, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe, Africa, and others. David has been honored many times for his numerous accomplishments in the oil industry.

David is a licensed private pilot, plays the guitar, former lifeguard, and is very active in exercise and sports. He has been a women's football coach, and children's basketball and little league coach. He recently participated in a Senior Games Challenge, and won the "Free Throw" and "Beyond 3-Point Line" Contests. He impressed the local high school principal so much that he offered David a job as a coach here in Tennessee the very next day.

David is the father of two sons, Chris and Andrew, and two step-sons, Kevin and Kyle. He is outstanding role model for all of our children and a caring, loving father.

I am personally not from Knox, or even Indiana, but I do love visiting there. Every time we visit family in Knox, people always come up to David to talk about how well he played sports. They can recall whole plays. We always visit the high school, and David does keep up with how the high school teams fare even though we live in Tennessee.

David has told me many times how his experiences at Knox High School motivated him to work hard and do his very best. He has told me that the school provided him with many opportunities, and that he developed many life-long good habits from those years.

If being selected as a "distinguished alumni" has anything to do with overall personal integrity, extremely well held values, and accomplishments in life, I can assure you that David could be considered the best example of all of these.

Written by Kimberly King; proud wife of David King