BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – A Western Kentucky University alum is paying it forward to the next generation of students.
Dr. Stephen King (’64) of Catawba, Va., who spent his career as a music educator, gave an estate gift to aid future music students at WKU.
“I’m honored to be able to pay that back to ensure the legacy of WKU and help provide opportunities for students just as I was helped,” he said in a release. “It’s payback.”
When the Hopkinsville native first stepped foot on campus as a prospective Music major, he was impressed by the warm and welcoming atmosphere he encountered.
He originally wrote to the Music Department at another Kentucky school, but his high school band director, Robert Griffith, suggested he look at WKU. King then called to make an appointment with Dr. Tom Stone, the Head of the Department of Music at the time.
“My good friend Walt Lawrence (’64) had also applied to Western, so we drove down together,” Dr. King reminisced. “Walt let me out in front of the music building. When I got out of the car and walked toward the building, I passed five or six people from the curb to the building, and all of them said ‘hello.’”
As an Instrumental Music major, his primary instruments were the clarinet and bass clarinet, though he played bass drum in the marching band during his senior year, per the release.
As a student, he was approached by Dr. Stone to be what he called the “turnkey,” with responsibility for supervising and locking up the music building at 9 p.m. each night.
“Evidently, he saw something in me that he thought I could handle the responsibility,” he said of Dr. Stone in a release. “I appreciated that because the pay I received helped get me through school. When I started at Western, tuition was $25 a quarter, and I still had to work to pay for that. My mom and dad wanted me to go to college, and my mom went out of her way to do things to allow her to send me money so I could eat, but I still had to find a job.”
It was a connection from a former classmate Lucian Priode (’66), who lived in western Virginia, who helped get him his first job after college. The position was as a high school Band Director in Wise County at Coeburn High School in Virginia.
After he expressed his interest, Dr. King was granted an interview, to which he traveled 14 hours by bus from Louisville. When he interviewed for the job, he was offered the position.
Several days later, he accepted the job and spent four wonderful years at Coeburn, during which time he met his late wife, Linda.
He and his wife, Linda, then moved to Roanoke County, where he served for 17 years as a Band Director at William Byrd High School and earned a master’s in Educational Administration from Radford University. He then spent 10 years as a Fine Arts Supervisor for Roanoke County Schools—with a year off in the middle to complete a doctorate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
After retirement, Dr. King was invited to join the Music Education faculty at Virginia Tech, where he spent 21 years, with the last four years in the School of Education teaching master’s level students.
Throughout his career, he was active in state music, music education, band and orchestra associations.
“I had a wonderful career,” he said. “I had wonderful students and wonderful parents. Having the opportunity to work with pre-teachers was an enormous responsibility. I enjoyed that thoroughly, getting out in the schools to see what Music Education students were doing—working with them, making suggestions and then watching them graduate and become successful.”
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