A Tribute to Frank King

At StarFest92, for the first time, MBCA awarded the newly created Mercedes-Benz AG Award, recognizing an individual's lifetime contribution to the club. This award, the club's highest, will be presented only when a candidate is deemed especially qualified. The first recipient is a man who has helped more MBCA members than anyone else, MBCA Technical Director Frank King.

The thousands of members who contact Frank King with technical questions each year probably picture him as being a lot younger than he really is. At 87, Frank's abillity to remotely analyze intricate mechanical problems via letters and calls is matched by his excellent memory and writing ability, amply evidenced in these pages for the past 17 years. Frank's knowledge and unselfish efforts have helped many thousands of Mercedes-Benz owners to better enjoy their driving experience.

Two years after Frank was born in 1905, his father started work with the Seattle Fire Department. After 52 years, mostly as an engineer operating steam engines, he retired. Long service is a family trait!

As a child, Frank became fascinated with automobiles. His exposure was mostly limited to reading until 1911. Then, after setting a world speed record at Daytona, "Wild Bob" Burman took the Blitzen Benz to Seattle on an exhibition tour. Frank's father took his six-year old son to see it run on the track at White City, an amusement park on Lake Washington. He was most impressed by the noise of the 21-liter, 4-cylender engine and the rooster tails of dust.

After graduating from high school in Seattle in 1923, Frank began working his way through the University of Washington. Upon passing an examination with the highest grade, he became a civil engineer for the city of Seattle. "It was mostly a case of learning the jargon and applying geometry and trigonometry," he says.

His first car was a 1919 Chalmers, but Frank soon fell out of love with its lack of power and crudeness. Its successor was a 1919 Cole Aero 8, with plenty of power and comfort but a cone clutch. Upshifting was easy, but downshifts needed skill and practice. Double-clutching was a necessity. The clutch release bearing failed, and Frank had to make a special tool out of a piece of water pipe. After nights of filing away, the lugs broke off when he tried to use it. He repeated the job three times, but he got the bearing out.

In 1932 a friend come up with the old "Have I got a girl for you" line and introduced Frank to Mary Scott Riesland, a University of Washington student. Hopelessly smitten, Frank arranged a couple of dates, but on the first his beloved 1923 Stutz Bulldog suffered three flat tires. Thanks to its sidemounts, he had two spares, so he parked in front of Mary's apartment with only one flat. Fortunately their date was for a piano concert in the next block. He sold the Stutz - as is, where is- for $50.

In 1934, Frank picked up a memorable car, a 1928 McFarlan TV Roadster. Spotting it on a used car lot, he bought it for $400 and did some improving. "Restoration was unknown then. I found the White truck alloy pistons would fit, turned the polished aluminum intake manifold upside down, and put on a Winfield downdraft carburetor, replaced the distinctive but awful-looking disc wheels with wire wheels, and added a chrome-plated cobra, part of an old candlestick, as a radiator ornament. In this car, Mary agreed to marry me."

In 1940, Frank joined Boeing Airplane company, then thriving on war business. His job mostly involved industrial engineering, but prophetically his activities there would best be termed trouble-shooter. By 1948 he had a good job on the president's staff, but the future looked dull. In 1950 he joined the new Electronics Division of Curtiss-Wright and moved to New Jersey. Meanwhile, General Dynamics was formed when Electric Boat Company bought a Montreal aircraft plant. To operate the new division, Canadair, they hired Frank's old bosses from Boeing. Through them, Frank accepted a job; in 1952 he and Mary became Canadian immigrants.

At Canadair, Frank became close friends with his assistant, a German immigrant. The company held several German aircraft contracts, and on a 1961 trip to Europe to search for new products, Frank had a pleasant visit to DBAG. (He also had a fine visit to Citroen in Paris.) Staying with Canadair until retiring in early 1971, he brought Mary back to the U.S. in 1978, settling in Durham, North Carolina.

Before the war Frank's favorite marque had been Stutz, his first being a 1926 Safety 8. The four-cylinder Bulldog was really his fovorite, as one might prefer a Type S, SS, or SSK to any later Mercedes-Benz.

Frank's knowledge of foreign cars started in 1930, reading the British magazines Autocar, The Motor, and Country Life (which include road tests). Mercedes-Benz became his favorite. In early 1946 a Mercedes-Benz was offered for sale in Seattle, and Frank investigated. The car was a 1927 Type S. "It was a great experience to drive it. Astonishing power, even thogh the supercharger was not permitted to be used, but also astonishingly hard to work brakes." Frank would have bought it for driving to work, but rear-end gears from a Buick with a ratio of about 5:1 had been substituted, so it took everthing in fourth gear.

At Curtiss-Wright the president asked him to look at a 170V that he had imported. The corporation was thinking of taking on U.S. representation of Mercedes-Benz. This never got far, but Frank was very impressed with the car's quality.

Having joined SCCA in 1946, Frank enjoyed seeing the early Watkins Glen races. In New Jersey in 1950 he bought a new Singer and was briefly involved with SCCA. In 1952 in Montreal he grew more active in its Montreal section. Because SCCA was unresponsive to the Canadians, the section withdrew, and Frank helped form the Laurentian Sports Car Club. With other Canadian clubs, they formed the Canadian Sports Car Association, with a paid director.

Selling the Singer and a Packard Super Eight, in 1954 Frank bought a Porsche 356 1500 Super (with a roller-bearing crankshaft). "My kids could made do in the back seat. There was no Porsche dealer in Canada, so I did my own maintenance. Fortunately the Porsche gave little trouble except for a broken clutch in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. A VW dealer there fixed that."

By the Mercedes-Benz had Canadian dealerships, and the Porsche was getting "Quebec cancer" (rust) and was too small for the kids. So in 1959 Frank bought a new 220S, his first of six Mercedes-Benz cars - three 220S's, a 280SL, a 240D, and a 300D.

Helping to form MBCA's Montreal Section, chartered in 1971, Frank volunteered to publish its newsletter. The first issue of L'Etoile du Nord was mailed in May 1972; it continued on a bi-monthly basis with plenty of good technical material by Frank. Bob Riggs became editor/publisher of The STAR in 1975, and according to Frank, "By his second issue he was already stealing stuff from the newsletter. It was the start of a life-long friendship."

Appointed MBCA Technical Director by National President Tracy Williams and named Technical Editor of The Star in 1977, Frank has continued as both since. He began visiting MBNA's Montvale headquarters and became good friends with the technical staff, a practice that continues today. Elected as MBCA Director At Large in 1981, Frank was re-elected in 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, and 1991. "During these terms, my activities as Technical Director have consumed most of my time. I've served on several committees but haven't run for national office because the job of Technical Director takes so much time that I couldn't do both."

Since 1978, Frank has assisted Carolinas Section in many activities. With Virginia Turner, he helped organize Triangle Section. He and Mary plan to stay in Durham. Their daughter is a producer in Atlanta for CNN; their son and his wife live near New Paltz, N.Y., where he is a librarian for the State University of New York. All gather in Durham for year-end festivities.

Frank's extensive knowledge is matched by his quiet modesty. He currently chairs MBCA's StarTech Committee and will lead seminars at that event next April. His in-depth technical columns in The STAR inevitably start with the basics, guiding readers to the why, not just the how. Besides the hundreds of thousands of words in his Technical Topic columns, he also gathers tech tips and has written several biographies for The STAR. Much of the Technical Reprint series originated with Frank. As Technical Director, he researches and answers more than a dozen inquiries daily. His opinions are valued by Mercedes-Benz engineers and technicians everywhere, and he provides excellent feedback to Mercedes-Benz.

For many years Frank King has quietly provided an extrememly valuable service to thousands of MBCA members. His dedication and selflessness serve as a fine example for the entire national staff. As the most deserving first recipient of this very special award, all of MBCA thanks him.