King, Arnold K.

Arnold Kimsey King was born in Hendersonville, N.C., 31 August 1901. He married Edna Coates (d. 1978) of Smithfield, N.C., on 31 August 1929. The couple had three children: Arnold Kimsey, Jr., a Methodist minister; William Dennis, a writer and editor; and Mary Ann, an elementary school reading specialist. King married Louise Tunstall of Creedmoor, N.C., on 6 April 1979.

King took his first job in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, shortly after receiving his baccalaureate degree from the University in 1925. Later, he earned a master's and doctorate in history from the University of Chicago. For almost 40 years, King served on the Chapel Hill faculty in various posts, including associate dean of the Graduate School. In 1964, he joined the General Administration of the multicampus University of North Carolina. He was vice president for institutional studies from 1964 to 1971, when he was named special assistant to the president. He retired in 1986.

In the 1960s, King helped persuade the North Carolina General Assembly to add campuses at Wilmington, Charlotte, and Asheville to the UNC system. In 1977, at the age of 75, he served as temporary chancellor at UNC Asheville. After he retired, King wrote a 350-page history of UNC entitled The Multicampus University of North Carolina Comes of Age, 1956-1986 (1987).

(Based on obituary in Board of Governors Quarterly, Spring 1992, p. 6.)

From the guide to the Arnold K. King Papers, 1900s-1980s, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)