Timothy King (1957)

Timothy King was born in London in 1938, grew up in Hampshire, and attended Bedales School where his father Cyril ( KC 1919) was Deputy Head Master. Bedales ethos was to greatly influence Timothy’s concept of service to others throughout his long life. Timothy went up to King’s in 1957 and graduated with 1^st class honours in the Economics Tripos in 1960, subsequently obtaining an MA in 1964.  He then went on to the University of California at Berkeley where he gained an MA in 1962 and a PhD in 1965 and where he married his first wife Patricia with whom he had two daughters.

On his return to Cambridge in 1964, Timothy was appointed a University Assistant Lecturer and then Lecturer in Economics and Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics in Queens’ College.   The enthusiasm and empathy which he demonstrated as a teacher and mentor throughout his later life were already apparent at this time. In his tribute Lord John Eatwell, President of Queens' 1997 – 2020, stated that Timothy, his first supervisor, was  “kind and understanding” and that “he helped me adjust to the strange world of Cambridge and his teaching ensured me a first at the end of the year”.

In 1969, Timothy took up a position as an economist in the Population Studies and Employment Division of the World Bank in Washington DC and thus began a long and distinguished career in the world of development which took him all over the globe. In 1980, he spent a fruitful year as an academic visitor in Nuffield College Oxford where he began to consider issues relating to population and immigration. By the mid-1980s, he increasingly focused on centrally planned economies.

After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, Timothy was a member of early Bank/IMF missions to Russia and later he met and married his second wife who also worked on post-communist systems for the Bank. When she was posted to Budapest in 1998, Timothy took early retirement and, enthusiastically dedicated himself to his long-held ambition which was to research the economics of opera production. Sceptical colleagues often remarked that no rigorous economic analysis is possible for any opera production, but Timothy pressed on, delving ever further into international comparisons of cultural financing with great enjoyment, contributing to journals on cultural economics and writing extensively on the topic.

In 2006, Timothy moved to Dublin, where he immersed himself in the Irish cultural scene and supported numerous musical festivals and the Irish National Opera. He also spent his later years researching his family history, discovering deep roots in Ireland and documenting his findings. His generosity to the Irish National Opera continues through his support of a new opera which was commissioned before his death.  His legacy also will continue through a project to enable disadvantaged school children to prepare for and visit an opera production.

He died, with his wife at his side, on May 12^th 2024, a month short of his 86^th birthday. That his was a life lived to the full with great generosity and élan was demonstrated when, at his funeral, gifted performers gathered to express their appreciation in a musical celebration that he would have greatly enjoyed.