Myles Horton, educator and activist wrote: “I think if I had to put a finger on what I consider a good education, a good radical education, it wouldn’t be anything about methods or techniques. It would be loving people first.” Marshon Phillip King lived to love people and on Sunday July 1 in Nashville Tennessee he went home peacefully with family by his side. Marshon was born in Enid, Oklahoma on March 21, 1933 to Willie Maurice King and Maggie Steele King. An accomplished student and lover of sports, Marshon started college at the age of 16 when he and his brother Milford entered Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri in August of 1949. During his years there Marshon earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and meet the woman who would become his wife, Araminta Eileen Williams. While Araminta completed her degree at Lincoln, Marshon earned a graduate degree at University of Pennsylvania. They were married on June 7th, 1954 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and made their way west to California in1955 after Marshon joined the United States Navy. Their daughter, Phyllis Drennon, was born in 1957 and their son Maurice William was born in 1962. Although he was a gifted scientist with an early career in the HBI Laboratory at Mt Zion Hospital in San Francisco, Marshon felt called to act on his blossoming interest in social justice. Inspired by community work on Bay Area educational issues, his active participation in the El Cerrito NAACP and South Berkeley Community Church, Marshon was moved to answer the call to become a high school educator in 1972. He earned his master’s degree in counseling from UCSF and began a 30+ year career with the Jefferson Union High School District working at Oceana, Terra Nova and Jefferson High Schools. His dedication to the educational achievement for all was galvanized after the death of Araminta in 1974 and lead to years of service with his Lincoln University Alumni chapter, the Bay Area Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Alumni Chapter, the scholarship fund of the El Cerrito NAACP, and years of volunteer service at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Richmond, California after his retirement in 2001. Marshon found joy and amazement in his people…friends, students and especially family. The accomplishments of his students and the children of all his friends brought him great joy, but It was his children and grandchildren that gave him his greatest sense of pride. He commented regularly that they were his living legacy and his undying support for them was lived passionately for all to see. Marshon’s surviving children Phyllis Drennon King Hildreth, her husband James and their children Sophia and Jay as well as Maurice William King, his wife Dori and their children, Brennan (his wife Marina) and Patrick appreciate the support from all that loved their father. They would especially like to thank the communities, care and support teams in California and Tennessee that helped him “extend his journey on this earth longer than we deserved”.

The Nashville Celebration of Life for Marshon will be: Date: Friday July 6, 2018 Time: 12:00 Noon Location: Clark Memorial United Methodist Church 1014 Fourteenth Avenue North Nashville, TN 37208

The California Celebration of Life for Marshon will be: Date: Friday July 13th, 2018 Time: 1:00pm Location: Sunset View Cemetery and Mortuary 101 Colusa Avenue El Cerrito, CA 94530

In lieu of flowers and to honor Marshon’s desire to further educational opportunities for all, donations can be made to the following scholarship funds at:

Meharry Medical College The Marshon P. King Health Sciences Scholarship Fund Attention: Gift Management Services Kresge LRC Building, Suite 630 1005 Dr. D.B. Todd Jr. Blvd. Nashville, TN 37208

American Baptist College The Marshon P. King Social Justice Education Scholarship Fund Attention: Institutional Advancement 1800 Baptist World Center Drive Nashville, TN 37027 Online gifts: www.abcnash.edu/donate