A MAN with a big heart for his family and the community passed away suddenly Oct. 19.
Corbin King, 92, who managed the Co-op for a number of years and worked many jobs here, in Prince Rupert and Salmon Arm died with his family at his side.
“He was a proud man, and very much a family man,” said his daughter Christine Andrews.
King felt a drive to be a community supporter and sat on the boards of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, Mills Memorial Hospital, the Terrace Public Library and the Coast Mountains School District #82.
In 2006, he received the Order of Terrace for all his community service, said Andrews.
“Jack Talstra, the former mayor, always said that dad kept the [local] farmers going and this community when things were rough because he made sure the Co-op bought produce to sell to customers from farmers and kept a lot of those families going,” said Andrews.
King began working at age 13 and over the years, worked in the lumber yard here, in logging and many odd jobs, she said.
He went to the Yukon and worked on a paddlewheeler for a summer and enlisted, becoming part of the Rocky Mountain Rangers, which took him to Prince Rupert where he met his wife Lillian, who he was married to for 65 years.
The couple operated a fish camp just out of Queen Charlotte City for two summers and saved up money to buy their first house in Prince Rupert, said Andrews.
He moved back to Terrace when he was hired as relief manager for the Terrace Co-op and then got hired on as the full-time general manager, at which point he moved Lillian and their son back to Terrace, said Andrews.
He was a school trustee when Uplands and Cassie Hall schools opened and he named Uplands, where Andrews, her brothers and her children have gone to school.
“There was a great debate over what to name the school,” said Andrews.
“He came home from a school board meeting and told my brothers the school name was Uplands,” she added, saying her brother then told her dad it was a dumb name.
Her dad became involved in a water project on the bench because that would get the school built, said Andrews.
In 1978, they moved to Salmon Arm and he was going to retire but was elected to the board of Federated Co-op and was vice-president for the BC region, which he worked at for a long time, she said.
At one point, he even met former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau a couple of times, she added.
King moved back to Terrace to be closer to Andrews, her brother and grandchildren in 1989, said Andrews.
“When they left Terrace, they always said ‘we may be back’ and I think that the fact that their friends and family were here, this was home.
“It was always home,” said Andrews.
A service was held for King Oct. 24 at the Evangelical Free Church.