Christopher Kevin King

Christopher Kevin King

January 11, 1959 – March 15, 2023  

A devoted husband, father, and friend, lifelong Quaker, and outstanding mathematician and scholar, Chris passed away peacefully at home in the loving care of wife Michelle Ciurea and sons Nicholas and Brendan Ciurea King. He also leaves brother Desmond King (Carolyn Cowey), nephew Samuel, and extended family in Ireland and the UK.  He was pre-deceased by parents Desmond and Margaret (Brady) King of Stillorgan, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland.

Chris was born and raised in Stillorgan, Dublin. Unusually for the time, his parents left the Catholic Church in the early 1960s and joined Churchtown Meeting of the Ireland Religious Society of Friends, raising Chris and his brother as Quakers.  This imbued Chris with values of integrity, simplicity and equality that pervaded how he walked in the world as a scientist, professor, mentor, husband, father, and friend.

As a child and youth, Chris demonstrated unusual academic prowess, especially in mathematics and physics. His parents prioritized education for their sons, sending them to the High School, one of Dublin’s best schools. There, Chris’ natural talent in math and physics profited from rigorous pedagogy, including under his strict but beloved math teacher Victor ‘Pip’ Graham, a visiting university lecturer.  In 1976, Chris achieved exceptional marks in his Leaving Certificate exam, winning a scholarship for top performance in the country in mathematics.  At 17 he matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin.  There he pursued two full degrees concurrently, in Physics and Mathematics – an endeavor unprecedented at the time; equally so was to win a First and a Gold Medal in each discipline.  At 21 he began graduate studies at Harvard University, completing his PhD in Mathematical Physics in 1984. 

But it was not all study.  Among the pleasures of his youth were Quaker youth excursions to Europe as a teenager; memorizing Monty Python sketches by heart including from the film Life of Brian, that had been banned in Ireland; and, as a graduate student in Boston, discovering American pleasures such as motorcycles, skiing, and coed housing.

A post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University followed, and then a Visiting Professorship in Mathematics at Cornell University.  Until that point Chris’ path through life had been linear and clear, dictated by a talent that had always suggested what the next step should be.  However, in his late 20’s, while at Cornell, he began to question whether it all added up to the type of life he wanted to lead.   He used a professional sojourn at the ETH in Zurich, an academic center for physics research, to explore other ways of being.  In his spare time, he stuffed envelopes for Greenpeace, drove a supply truck for the Red Cross, and traveled solo throughout Europe. He returned to Cornell having confirmed his love for mathematics, but with a clearer sense of what else he wanted out of life.  Tai chi, drawing from the right side of the brain, and spirituality all became new interests. He began attending Quaker meeting again in Ithaca.  In this period, in 1989, he also met his future wife Michelle.  In 1991 they moved to Boston, marrying in 1992. 

In Boston Chris began what was to be a lengthy and satisfying career in mathematics at Northeastern University.  Over the years, he was known as a congenial colleague who could be reliably counted on to help with necessary but unglamorous tasks in his department. He served as Department Chair, and helped create Masters’ programs in Applied Mathematics and in Operations Research.  For graduate students interested in non-academic careers, he developed a co-op program so they could gain work experience in applied fields.  In all these roles his style was to treat everyone – staff members, professors and students alike – with equal respect, in the words of a colleague, “creating an even playing field for all.”

Although Chris’ intellectual starting point had been mathematical physics, over the years his research interests broadened and became more applied.  He found great pleasure in interdisciplinary collaborations in which his role was to mine the mathematics underlying important applications.  His contributions spanned the domains of Theoretical Physics, Probability Theory, Stability Theory, and application areas such as Quantum Information, Computer Networking, Smart Cities, and the study of Distributed Ledgers.  While on sabbatical at Microsoft Research in 1998 he earned a patent on routers and methods for optimal routing table compression.  In 2013 he was named an inaugural Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.  From the 1990’s until his death, he maintained close collaborations with Irish colleagues, including at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, the Hamilton Institute at Maynooth University and, most recently, Imperial College London.  A colleague, commenting on the breadth and depth of his mathematical interests, noted that to Chris, “mathematics was a garden.”  Another characterized him as “a Mozart of mathematics” for the elegance and clarity of his work. 

In his last few years he was a math mentor and curriculum developer for Northeastern’s Bridge to Calculus program, which provides supplemental math instruction outside of school hours for students in Boston Public Schools. Impressed by the students’ devotion, Chris enjoyed learning from them as much as teaching them.  For example, despite math being the universal language, he was initially puzzled as to why some recently arrived immigrant students had trouble with basic algebra. He soon realized it was not because they didn’t understand the concepts but because they did not know the English names of variables. He soon began lessons by asking the students to teach him the variable names in their own language. 

Throughout the years he found the time for those coming up behind him.  Many younger mathematicians remarked memorable instances in which his assistance with a thorny intellectual problem, or simply encouragement at a critical juncture, proved pivotal in their development as mathematicians.  A former student noted, “he was a good role model on how to be a mathematician and a human being at the same time. “

His interest was in the work itself, not in self-promotion.  As one young friend said, “he took his work seriously, but he did not take himself overly seriously.”  Few people outside his profession knew of his mathematical accomplishments.  Rather, they knew him as a soccer dad, an astronomy buff, a bird afficionado whose goodwill firmly excluded “bully birds” and poaching squirrels.  As the long-time Treasurer of his Quaker meeting (Beacon Hill Friends Meeting) his clear explanations and reassuring calmness led many to joke he should start a second career as a therapist to the mathematically traumatized.  Friends remembered him as an affable and witty companion who enjoyed talking more about ideas than about himself. 

As husband and father, his love was clear-eyed but unconditional, steadfast and true.  Children never felt he was talking down to them -- one of his wonderful qualities as a father -- and he never made his children feel that his work was more important than them. For years he was his sons’ notably easygoing soccer coach, math consultant to them and their friends, enthusiastic supporter of their life’s journeys wherever they might lead, and advisor -- but only when asked to be.  Disinclined to pedantry, he passed on his values about integrity, seriousness of purpose, or lightness of being, by simply living them.  He opened the door to the worlds of science, music, math, and literature to his children, but never pressured them to walk through.

He also was a lifelong avid bicyclist, hiker, sailor and skier.  The West of Ireland, especially Connemara, held a special place in his heart, and he loved sharing it with his wife and sons on their frequent trips to Ireland. 

Chris never lost his love of Irish music and could sing long songs, both poetic and ribald, from memory with his own guitar accompaniment.   He’d taken up the guitar as an adult and inspired both his sons to enjoy playing as well. Among his happiest moments were rollicking evenings making music with his sons and close friends.

His low-key manner and attentive presence, devoid of ego or agenda, created space for people to be their truest selves.  In a crowd he was usually the last to speak or claim the floor. One friend remarked, “he was always the smartest man in the room, but he was humble and gentle, and wore his brilliance lightly.” 

A deeply moral man, he was disinclined to moral pronouncements; generous and warm-hearted, he was not inclined to sentimentality.  Self-pity was no part of his temperament.  Even in difficult circumstances, such as the few years following a cancer diagnosis, he comported himself with a stoic grace that spared his loved ones additional burdens.  Even under the shadow of daunting odds, he maintained a sense of gratitude about what life had given him, not outrage at what it would not. 

He is deeply missed.

A Memorial Service was held on May 20, 2023 at Cambridge Friends Meeting in Cambridge MA. 

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