FOUNDING DEAN OF LIBERAL ARTS
Bob was born November 25, 1936 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, second son of Desmond and Marguerite King. Bob thrived in his small-town Southern community, full of family, friends, dogs, and pleasures of the outdoors.
He graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1954, studying mathematics at Georgia Tech where he serendipitously learned about studying abroad. He would find his linguistic footing during a year of study at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. After fourteen months abroad he returned to Georgia Tech, earning a mathematics degree in 1959.
Leaving Atlanta, he did his military service at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and then went to work for IBM at Cape Canaveral in the early days of the space program. Based on his strength in the German language, Bob found his way to the University of Wisconsin in 1961, discovering a passion for linguistics with an emphasis on Germanic studies. Wisconsin offered Bob an opportunity to do linguistic fieldwork and he stumbled into another lifelong passion, India studying tribal languages locally.
Bob left Wisconsin in 1965 with an M.A. in German literature and a Ph.D. in German linguistics landing a posting at the University of Texas. In 1974, Bob became associate dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In 1979 — the College of Liberal Arts was formed out of the smaller colleges of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Humanities, and Non Departmental Programs, and Bob was appointed to head up the new college.
On June 9th, 1973 he married the love of his life Karen where over the next 50 years he would spend raising 3 kids, 5 grand kids, and various esteemed lineages of schnauzers, fox terriers, and labradoodles. Bob traveled extensively for pleasure and work, sharing these experiences primarily with Karen but also with the rest of his family.
Bob had a great passion for the outdoors where every year the beginning of dove season marked the passage of time, enjoying an ice cold beer after more often than not hitting his limit. He was known as a man that could in the same breath speak about duck calls, the intricacies of the Gallipoli campaign, and the latest studies of linear B. Bob delighted in cooking throughout his life, where family and friends were often gifted amazing dinners that Bob prepared including Indian and Chinese specialties and the much beloved Texas steak and potatoes.
After stepping down as Dean, from 1994-98 he served as Chairman of the Department of Linguistics but otherwise he devoted himself to teaching, mostly of undergraduates. By then his research and publishing interests had shifted from theoretical linguistics to Yiddish and Jewish Studies, and the history of India. In 2011 he retired.
By some distance, however, his greatest pleasure in life was his family; beloved wife Karen, his daughter Irene Neumann, son-in-law Jörg Neumann and their twin daughters Isabel and Sophia; his son Kevin, daughter-in-law Sarah King and their children Taylor, Kathryn, and Jonathan; and his son Michael. No man ever had greater joy in his children and grandchildren than did Bob.
Besides his immediate family, he is survived by his brother, David King and nieces Nancy Ward and Patti Behar, plus his brother in law, Ken Russell.
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