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OBITUARY King W. Herrington 1921 - 2008 King W. Herrington, 87, was born April 29, 1921 to Bessie (King) and Charles Leonard Herrington on a farm near Thurman, Colorado. Herrington passed away on October 4, 2008. Growing up with his younger brother, Samuel, both attended first grade in a one room school known as Cactus Hill. For high school, a room was rented in Akron batching the four school years, graduating from Akron High School with the class of 1939. King scouted around and found many arrowheads, also collecting rattle snake rattles, even being bitten by one on the hand behind him, while trying to kill one with a tin can. During the summer and after graduating from school, he worked in Kansas for a cousin. He later took a sheet metal class in Denver. After completing the course, he went to California with a high school classmate, Eugene Gasser finding work at Vultee Aircraft. After a call from Uncle Sam, he enlisted in the Navy, serving time in Kodiak, Alaska and then the Naval Air Station at Seattle (Sandpoint), Washington. During this stay, he was joined by his brother Samuel, (also in the Navy). After some time, Samuel was transferred to the Bremerton Ammunition Depot, but every seven weeks, they had a weekend together. Serving over four years, King returned to the home farm. Because of the drought during the 1930's, he was not too interested in farming. After 30 years on the farm, his parents decided to sell and retire. After having a farm sale in November, 1947, the family moved to Denver. After working for Mountain States Bean Company a short time, he had the opportunity to get back in aviation work, working for Stanley Aviation until their closing and then going to Vest Aircraft at Skyranch Airport. He later worked for and retired from Frontier Airlines. On November 22, 1950, King married Willa Mae (Polly) Fickel, from Ottumwa, Iowa. To this union, four children were born. Being from the farm and knowing about barb wire, he started collecting it about 1971. A friend also started collecting wire fencing tools at that time. They worked together for the past 37 years. They went to many shows around the country. King came home with many first place trophies. There are about 3500 patents of barb wire, but many were never found or manufactured. His collection consisted of about 1000 pieces with many very rare pieces. He had taken several classes in welding and could weld small pieces together to make an official piece. He also made several non-official pieces and never represented them as official. He was inducted into the "Barb Wire Hall of Fame". While looking for barb wire, he started collecting adjustable wrenches, having many unbelievable varieties of sizes, shapes and forms. King was a member of Aurora Assembly of God Church, where services were held. Burial was in Chappel Hills Cemetery. Surviving him are his loving wife of 58 years, his four children; Terry Herrington of Aurora, Debbie and Greg Surrat of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Kristi and Jeff Hunter of Aurora and Nancy and Greg Gudeman of Columbia, Illinois. Also surviving are his brother Samuel and Helen of Lakewood and one sister, Betty Mitchell and friend Wayne Ralston of Boulder, Colorado. Akron, Colorado News Reporter on Oct 24, 2008 |