Trustee Emerita King Dies

Susan Bennett King '62, a Duke trustee for more than a decade, died July 22 at Duke Health Community Care hospice after a long battle with lung cancer. She was sixty-four.

Reared in Atlanta, King graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a major in political science. She worked in a variety of political and governmental positions in Washington, including with the U.S. Senate, the National Committee for an Effective Congress, the Center for Public Financing of Elections, and the Federal Election Commission. For three years during the Carter administration, she was chair and commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

From 1982 to1994, she worked for Corning Incorporated, where her job titles included director of consumer affairs in the consumer products division; vice president for corporate communications; president of Steuben Glass, a division of Corning; and senior vice president of corporate affairs.

As a Duke trustee from 1989 to 2001, she served on the Executive Committee and Student Affairs Committee and chaired the Academic Affairs Committee, the Committee on Honorary Degrees, and the committee that planned the board's first retreat. She was a member of the board of visitors at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy from 1981 to 2004, and its chair from 1985 to 1988.

King moved back to the Durham area in 1994, and was named leader-in-residence for the Sanford Institute's Hart Leadership Program (HLP), which helps Duke undergraduates become active leaders and citizens engaged in a democratic society. She was president of the HLP's Leadership Initiative, designed to encourage and support universities interested in undergraduate leadership education.

In 2000, she endowed the Susan B. King Professorship of Public Policy Studies through the Bass Program for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. Sherman James, professor in community and family medicine and professor of African and African-American Studies, currently holds the chair.

King's work at Duke was recognized in October 2001 when she received the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service.

In March 2003, the Coca-Cola Foundation made a $1-million gift to fund the Susan Bennett King Multimedia and Instructional Technology Center at the Sanford Institute's new Rubenstein Hall building, now under construction.

She is survived by her husband, Stephen Glantz; her brother, Bruce Bennett '65; two nieces; and a nephew.