Stephen Patrick (“Pat”) King Jr
Stephen Patrick (“Pat”) King Jr, 63, of Lewisburg, WV, passed away on February 28 in Tampa, FL, while on a golf trip with his son, cousin, and best friend.
A lifelong West Virginian, despite his birth and stints of residence elsewhere, Pat was born in Clifton Forge, VA, on April 1, 1962, to Stephen Patrick King and Elizabeth Ballard King. He attended White Sulphur Springs Elementary and Junior High Schools, where he excelled in basketball, baseball, and football under the tutelage of Coach Gunnoe. He graduated from Greenbrier East High School and spent several summers as a baseball counselor at Camp Greenbrier. He graduated from West Virginia University, to which he maintained a deep and enduring bond. Friends and family often said that if you pricked Pat’s finger, he would bleed Blue and Gold.
Pat moved to Roanoke, VA, in 1990. Shortly thereafter he co-founded HCR, a nationwide healthcare consultancy, with his business partner of 30+ years, Gayle Keith. For 18 years, they built and scaled HCR with Pat serving as President and CEO, until the company was acquired by transcription giant Medquist in 2012. Over the next 11 years as Senior Vice President of HIM and Product Solutions, Pat built out the coding, audit, and management consulting divisions of Medquist and successors M*Modal & AQuity Solutions from the ground up, scaling them significantly over his tenure.
During the peak of HCR’s growth in 2006, together with Gayle and his brother, John, Pat purchased a struggling medical records scanning company that they revitalized and rebranded to Evrichart, “The Company of Record”. It was important to Pat that this growing company be headquartered in his hometown of White Sulphur Springs, and when they ultimately sold Evrichart in 2016, it was the largest data storage, management, and retrieval company in the U.S. purely focused on medical records, and employing 80+ people in White Sulphur Springs and Covington.
While he had great success in business, anyone who knew Pat knew that he took far more pride in his children, the young men that he mentored in six years of coaching basketball at Roanoke Catholic School, the deep friendship that he built with Coach Joe Gaither, and the countless other lives that he touched through his involvement in so many communities. Anyone who talked to Pat for more than a moment would quickly witness his pride describing Lillie’s success as a musician and actor, or John Michael’s advancement and leadership in his career. He also cared deeply for all animals, particularly rescue pups, and he had a special affinity for “supermutts”, Norwegian Elkhounds, and German Shepherds.
Outside of his wife and children, his basketball boys, and his animals, Pat’s passions included golf, fishing, Spades with his Roanoke crew, reading more books than should be humanly possible, and pontificating on whichever issue of the day stuck out to him in the moment. While Greenbrier County was forever his home, he always said that his soul never felt more at peace than it did when he was down on North Carolina’s Outer Banks – specifically in Nags Head at his family’s dream beach house, which he named “Sea Angel” after one of his beloved German Shepherds.
Pat is survived by his wife of 24 years, Angela King; beloved children, John Michael King (William Rydzewski) of Washington, DC, and Lillie Ann King of Lewisburg; cherished mother, Elizabeth (“Sue”) Ballard King of White Sulphur Springs; sister, Betsy Karr (Jimmy) of DeLand, FL; brother, John Ballard King of Ronceverte; niece, Susanna Harrison (Josh Jones) of Gainesville, FL; nephew, Devin King (Patricia; Leo, Sophia, and Amelia) of Murfreesboro, NC; nephew, David King (Nicolly; Maverick) of Tampa, FL; “surrogate son”, Kalleone Moret (Kayla Cuttino; Eli, Kapri, and Kerri) of York, PA; and former wife, Sharon Layman of Roanoke, VA, with whom Pat shared a special bond as they continued to jointly raise John Michael. The list of friends, colleagues, and others whose lives were touched by Pat is far too long to list here.
Pat was preceded in death by his father, Stephen Patrick King Sr, with whom we are sure he is already fishing and golfing in heaven.
A Celebration of Life will be held Sunday, March 8 at 2:00 p.m. at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The family will be receiving visitors at 3:00 p.m., following the ceremony, for a reception at The Schoolhouse Hotel across from the church. All are welcome to come eat, drink, and share cherished memories of Pat.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made either to Greenbrier Valley Theatre or to Greenbrier Humane Society.
Special memories and stories about Pat can be submitted via the Tribute Wall on Wallace and Wallace Funeral Home’s website. Please send online condolences by visiting www.WallaceandWallaceFH.com.
Submitted by Wallace & Wallace Funeral Home in White Sulphur Springs.
