Ex-school superintendent Garfield King remembered

FORT KENT – The St. John Valley laid to rest a former educator Tuesday, one who taught youngsters and administered school districts for three decades.

Garfield King, 77, who died at his Eagle Lake home last Friday, taught schools at Allagash for a dozen years before becoming superintendent of schools there. He then served as superintendent in SAD 33 at Frenchville and St. Agatha.

King is remembered by some who worked with him during those years as a man who had children in mind when he made decisions about programming and their futures.

The Rev. David Raymond taught for King in SAD 33 during some trying years. Raymond was the homilist at King’s funeral at St. Louis Catholic Church in Fort Kent Tuesday.

“I admired him in many ways, as an educator, as a very hospitable man, an intelligent man who was knowledgeable in many areas,” Raymond said Wednesday. “He was superintendent during very stressful times in SAD 33.

“He respected people – although he may have disagreed with them, he still respected them,” he remembered. “He was a gentle man, a true gentleman, and a generous man.”

Raymond was a teacher when King took on the duty of consolidating SAD 33 schools. He was challenged by declining enrollments, declining population, an energy crunch, and a recession that struck the rural area hard.

“He had to close a school, consolidate others,” Raymond remembered. “He worked hard for what he believed in.”

Paul Bouchard was the principal at Wisdom High School during the King years at the helm of SAD 33

“I never had difficulty working with him because he was very supportive, very respectful,” Bouchard remembered Wednesday. “He had a difficult role because of the politics of the job, but he never steered away from making the difficult decision.

“Kids were very significant to him, which was probably a reason he worked so hard on creating a vocational education region in the St. John Valley,” Bouchard said. “There were others with him, and they made it work, although it was quite a nightmare.”

The two men also remember King as a gardener who grew things others could not, and as a tough individual who was supportive of his staff. They said he always wondered how their families were doing.

They remembered him as an administrator who attended all school functions, and many family functions of the people who worked for him.

“He developed programs and found ways to pay for them, even when money was tight,” Bouchard remembered.

King was a member of the U.S. Marines who used military programs to get an education once out of the military. He was a graduate of the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the University of Maine.

He taught at Allagash, SAD 10, from 1959 to 1967 when he became superintendent. He held that position until taking over as superintendent of SAD 33 in 1973. He retired in 1987.

King is survived by his wife of 45 years, Vented Plourde King of Fort Kent, and three sons, Clay of Reno, Nev., Craig of Topsham, and Chad of Fort Kent.