Foil: 14 Panel: Retired United Pilots Association Column: 1 Line: 84

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Winnifred A. King

CURTIS' KING, JR. flew west on Sunday, July 28, 2002 at the age of 84. He was born on February 23, 1918 to Ramelle Van Vleet King and Curtis King, of Memphis, Tennessee.
He attended Aiken Preparatory School, Hotchkiss School, Yale University and the Boeing School of Aeronautics. His home was in Memphis, but his heart was at the ranch in Clintwood Springs, Colorado where the family spent their summers. When Curt was nine, he started playing polo on bicycles, working his way up to the ponies. By the time he was fourteen, he was a three-goal player at the Memphis Hunt and Polo Club. At Yale he played on the Freshman Polo team which was the first freshman team ever to defeat the Varsity team-- which pleased them immensely. I assume they were very difficult to live with for a while.
After one year at Yale where he spent his time flying student charters in the daytime and playing in a dance band at night (and wound up on probation) he told his father that he wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and go to this great school in Oakland, California. He enrolled in the Boeing School of Aeronautics in Oakland, California so he could learn what he really wanted including sewing new linen covers for the wings of an airplane and taking an aircraft engine apart and putting it back together. This is where he and Bill Dunkle first met. Bill's memories are of lots of drinking and Curt playing the accordion.