In memoriam: Rosalie King, 1938 - 2010

Rosalie Maurine Rosso King, a faculty member in the Art Department at Western Washington University, passed away on Aug. 29 at her home on Mercer Island.

She is survived by her husband, Dell King, an adjunct professor of industrial design at WWU, and their children, daughter Paige King and son Indle King Jr.

"It is with great sadness that we learned this week about the death of Rosalie King, a former chair and longtime faculty member in the Art Department," said Madge Gleeson, chair of WWU's Art Department. "Her energy and enthusiasm will be sorely missed. The university community has lost a dear friend and colleague."

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 10, on what would have been Rosalie and Dell's 50th anniversary. The service will take place at the Mercer Island Presbyterian Church, 3605 84th Ave. S.E. A celebration of her life and dedication to family, profession and community will be held immediately following at the Seattle Women's University Club, 1105 6th Ave. in Seattle.

Rosalie was born in Tacoma on May 22, 1938. She married Indle Gifford King on Sept. 10, 1960, at the Presbyterian "Little Church on the Prairie" in Tacoma, where she grew up. Hers was a marriage bond lasting for 50 years.

King was a strong, compassionate and loving wife and mother throughout.

Rosalie was a renaissance person, exhibiting extreme amounts of talent, lifestyle versatility and, most of all, the gift of support for others.

Rosalie first entered higher education at the University of Puget Sound. She graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in home economics and went on to earn her master's degree in education from the Massachusetts State College at Framingham, just outside Boston. She completed a doctoral degree in forestry from the University of Washington.

Her career included teaching nearly 20 years at the University of Washington while serving as chair of the Textile Science and Costume Studies Division. Her next 26 years were spent in a senior professorship at Western Washington University. During her WWU tenure, she served as chair of the Department of Art as well as the Home Economics / Interior Design Department. During that time, she also served as president of Omicron Nu, a 24-chapter college honorary. Adjunct to that she completed sabbatical studies two different years at the Stanford University Design Department.

She was a visiting scholar at the Bauhaus Archives in Berlin, and she was a research scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Never in 46 years of teaching did she fail to receive high marks from her students.

"Her special passion was working with freshmen students who took her class at the very beginning of their programs on the way to becoming majors," Gleeson said.

In 2009, Rosalie and Dell King announced the new King Endowment for Design and Dell and Rosalie King Design Lecture Series, which attracts speakers to the Western Gallery who are authorities on the topic of design, said Elsi Vassdal-Ellis, a colleague of Rosalie's in the Art Department. Interior designer Michael Vanderbyl of San Francisco was the first speaker.

Much of Rosalie's time at WWU also centered on support of the school during a five-year assignment to evaluate the Bellingham waterfront expansion with a goal of including the building of new teaching spaces.

Rosalie spent long hours traveling the 160-mile round trip to class each day between Bellingham and Mercer Island. She looked forward to the peace and tranquility of home after a hard day's work.

Her considerable science background -- including chemistry, physics and microbiology -- allowed a specialization in determining textile material failure, including fabric fire, fading and disintrigration. She provided expertise textile testing for Northwest Labs in Seattle. During that time she published a book titled "Textile Identification, Conservation and Preservation."

As a result of that work, she was appointed to a three-year term on the Consumer Product Safety Commission, traveling to Washington, D.C. three to four times per year for investigation hearings.

Professionally, she was requested by various textile manufacturers in Hong Kong and Korea to visit and evaluate on-site quality control procedures.

In 2009, as part of her commitment to community service, she accepted the position of president of the 96-year-old Women's University Club of Seattle. Today, the club has more than a thousand members, women of many ages, religions and ethnic backgrounds who represent colleges, universities and professional schools throughout the world. The club's mission is to promote outstanding educational, cultural and social activities for its members and the community.

Bonnie Miller, current president of the Women's University Club of Seattle, plans to speak at the memorial service for King on Friday. Among her statement will be these words about Rosalie: "She was a gracious woman, always writing notes of thanks and gratitude to staff and committee members for the smallest of things. She was generous, as well, with both her time and her money. And when disease left her less than hardy, tired and weakened, she did not step aside and let someone take over the presidency, as many of us would have done, closing ranks and holding our family close. Instead, she honored her commitment to our club and walked up the steps to the president's office to serve."

Rosalie was a member of the club since 1970, and she served as house trustee -- in charge of maintenance, remodeling and preservation of the club's historic 1922 home -- from 1998 to 2000.

Observing the generosity of people helping others throughout her career and in conjunction with her interest in public service, Rosalie co-authored the book "Volunteers, America's Hidden Resource."

She was a lover of the outdoors and was most proud to have climbed Mount Rainier. She also loved to travel, and together with her husband spent time in almost every country in Europe.

She cherished the time with her children and was Mercer Island Elementary School PTA president during its formative days.

As an international gourmet follower, Rosalie was always entering and winning recipe contests sponsored in the local Mercer Island Reporter and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In support of her community, she became a delegate to the Mercer Island Sister City program, interacting with the French community of Thonon les Bains.

Her interest in the arts culminated in her becoming chairperson of the Mercer Island Arts Council.

Hobbies included textile weaving and creation of abstract art. She exhibited work at the university faculty level as well as participating at the local Bellevue Arts Fair, where she was an award winner on two occasions.