Francis King died January 28, 2016, in the 88th year of his life.  Going before him were his wife of 63 years, Dorothy known as Dede, and his brother Robert.  Left to honor his memory are his children Carol and Charles, along with Charles' wife Jane and their three children Benjamin, Emily and Giles.  Also surviving are a sister, Margaret Wisdom and her spouse Ed Bassett; brother Charles and wife Lee; sister-in-law Carol Wilcox; and a number of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Frank was born and raised in Washington DC, attending Landon School as a youth.  He began his military career at the US Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1950.  First assigned to post-war Germany, he and Dede later went to California, Oklahoma, New York, Kansas, Virginia and Alaska.  Additional overseas tours were in South Korea (DMZ 1960), Tokyo (1965-68) and Vietnam (1968-69) where he commanded an artillery battalion in combat and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for a particularly harrowing adventure.  Following retirement in 1979, Frank worked as a defense contractor in weapons safety engineering for a dozen years.

In his personal time, Frank was an avid sailor, captain of three sailboats:  the Honey Dear , the Quid Non and the Aeolus .  He and Dede enjoyed sailing with the Southern Maryland Sailing Association, including a term as Commodore.

In 2007, Frank and Dede moved to Hampton VA, finding a spiritual home at Wythe Presbyterian Church. With Dede's gradual decline of health, Frank took up independent residence at The Devonshire, where he made many friends.