Christopher King

Christopher John King Jr. Obituary Curiosity defined every day of Christopher John King Jr.’s life, from his birth on January 10, 1944 to his passing on July 6, 2026. Chris grew up a farm boy in Vermontville, Michigan, reading Hardy Boys novels, raising cows, and making mischief. His love of history and books took him to Michigan State University, where he studied Classics and graduated in 1967. That same year, he entered the Army and was trained as a linguist in Mandarin Chinese. During the Vietnam War, he was deployed to Okinawa, Japan, where he conducted radio intelligence, proving that at least in his case “military intelligence” was not an oxymoron. After his discharge, he moved to Taiwan in search of new experiences and a use for his hard-won language skills. Those skills brought him work teaching English, writing business correspondence, and teaching business at a local university. They brought him a social life with great friends. And eventually they brought him Marie. At a Christmas party in 1974, a young woman approached him for help with her English courses. They dated for three years, speaking and exchanging love letters in a mix of English and Chinese. They were married on January 1, 1978, and that August, they came to the United States. He earned a master’s degree in communications in 1981, examining intercultural and interlinguistic communication, topics close to his experience. A few years later, he and Marie had a baby girl, Alexandra. She was their only child, and they moved with her from Lansing to Davisburg, where they would both stay for the rest of their days. Chris was warm, open, and genuinely interested in people. He made friends everywhere he went: on teams and in clubs, at work, and in the Masonic organizations he participated in for over sixty years. In his retirement years, he got a chauffer’s license to drive retired Jesuits to doctor’s appointments – an ideal job where he could again be immersed in a scholarly environment, and get some reading done in waiting rooms to boot. Chris was a country boy who loved the outdoors, a fact expressed through his lifelong relationship with running. At MSU, he ran on the 1965 and 1966 Varsity track teams, which both won Big Ten championships. In Taiwan, he joined the Hash House Harriers, a group that describes itself as “a drinking club with a running problem.” He continued to run by coaching cross-country, participating in local 5Ks, and in his later years jogging on a treadmill at home. And he stayed close to the track all his life: he spent more than thirty years as a certified track official, having officiated meets even in the weeks before his passing. His favorite hobby was gathering firewood for the winter, a useful pursuit that got him out in the fresh air. He was always looking for downed trees, cutting and hauling logs, splitting them, and stacking the wood neatly at the house. And he was always learning more – about trees, wood, machinery, and methods – to perfect the craft. Tips he’d be happy to pass on: dryer lint makes an excellent fire starter, and ashes are great for dusting on an icy driveway or road. He surrounded himself with historical objects and curios, along with hundreds of books on any number of topics, in any number of languages. (He knew Chinese, Greek, and Latin, and even had working knowledge of Japanese and Russian.) Curating and sharing these with others brought him great joy. He regaled family and guests with personal and historical stories, entertaining them with antique British toy soldiers, Nintendo playing cards from their pre-videogame era, or elaborately decorated German banknotes from the 1920s. He also boasted an impressive collection of antique and unusual firearms, which he liked to shoot (safely, of course) in the backyard. He joked that if anything ever happened to him, at least Alexandra would be left well-armed. His working life was as eclectic as his mind. He was an educator: an English teacher abroad, a certified Latin teacher, a Mandarin instructor and translator, and a regular substitute teacher for Holly Area Schools. He was a leader: a Master Sergeant in the US Army Reserve and a track official. And he was a laborer: in his youth, he worked for the Eaton County Road Commission, and later at a tire factory and as a chimney sweep. Perhaps his most important work was raising his daughter. As a father, Chris was exceedingly patient and endlessly instructive. He loved to read to her and to explain how things worked, and he taught her how to ask questions and invited her to think about the world with him. He was incredibly proud that she went on to become a philosophy professor, a life that embodied these values. He was also delighted to have someone he could call with any questions about Plato or Aristotle. He never stopped reading and never stopped being curious about the world. In retirement, he read Jane Austen, Persian epics, and Chinese novels – and watched more than a few Netflix K-dramas. But he always returned to Greek classics. When he was 79, he reread the Iliad and was eager to share a discovery. The first line of his translation reads, “Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles,” but he saw that, in the original Greek, the first word was “anger” – or better (he thought): “wrath.” He declared with excitement, “The entire thing is about the first word!” Two years later, he traveled to Greece and saw, in person, the places he had spent a lifetime reading about. He spoke of the trip afterward, with shining eyes, as “the trip of a lifetime.” In 2023, Marie was diagnosed with lymphoma, and Chris became her caretaker. He accompanied and cared for her through her illness, and he did everything he could to lift her spirits when she was feeling down. Fifty years after they met, Marie Cheng-Yi King passed away. After her death, he wore her wedding band on a chain around his neck. He never stopped wearing his own. Just over a year and a half later, Chris passed away at home. He will be missed terribly by all who knew the warmth and generosity of attention he brought to the lives around him. Chris is survived by his daughter, Alexandra Robin King, and his sisters, Katherine King and Elizabeth Snodgrass. A memorial service will be held on December 18, 2026, 1:00 pm–3:00 pm, at Dryer’s Funeral Home in Holly. Guests are welcome to arrive anytime after 11:00 am to visit with friends and family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a memorial fund set up in Chris’s name. Details will be shared at the service, where we will remember him in his own spirit, with curiosity, stories, good humor, and kind words. www.dryerfuneralhomeholly.com

Christopher King

January 10, 1944 - July 2, 2026