October 22, 2012

Feature obituary: Zona King, 78, longtime music and art teacher at Waynflete

By Melanie Creamer mcreamer@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

BRUNSWICK – Zona King, a longtime music and art teacher at Waynflete School, who played the organ at Bowdoin College Chapel for nearly 20 years, died Friday. She was 78.

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PASSAGES

Each day the newsroom selects one obituary and seeks to learn more about the life of a person who has lived and worked in Maine. We look for a person who has made a mark on the community or the person's family and friends in lasting ways.

Ms. King joined the faculty at Waynflete School in 1973. She taught music, art history and other art classes.

She later served as chairman of the arts department and dean of faculty. She retired in 1996.

Ms. King was remembered Monday as a dedicated teacher, who shared her passion for music and art with her students.

"She was a wonderful teacher," said Mark Segar, head of school. "She was an extraordinary musician very accomplished. She was someone who taught from personal passion and personal scholarship. Her enthusiasm was contagious."

Katie (Glaser) Getchell, deputy director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, said Ms. King inspired her to pursue a career in art history. Getchell has been with the museum for the past 20 years.

"She was a very inspiring teacher," Getchell said.

"She was very good at bringing people out (of their shells) and building confidence. She was a great voice in the Waynflete community. She will certainly be missed."

She was married Richard A. King for 38 years and raised three children.

In her early years, Ms. King was a devoted wife and mother.

When her children were grown, she returned to school to earn her degree in teaching.

She graduated from the University of Southern Maine in Gorham in 1973.

Her daughter, Elizabeth Hess of Orlando, Fla., said Monday that she was a "wonderful mother," who worked hard and made many sacrifices for her children.

Ms. King was a gifted organist.

She was the first to major in organ at USM, according to her obituary.

She was the organist at First Parish Church in Brunswick from 1970 to 1986. She also played at the chapel at Bowdoin College from 1975 to 1992.

Ms. King also had a passion for sewing and gardening.

Her daughter reminisced about some of the clothes her mother made for her.

Hess also noted the flower garden at her mother's house on Mere Point Road in Brunswick, where she lived for many years.

Ms. King left Brunswick in 2005 to live at the Lindley Inn assisted living facility in The Plains, Ohio. She suffered from Parkinson's disease.

 

Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at:

mcreamer@pressherald.com

 

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