Prof Noel Q. King, Professor Emeritus of History and Comparative Religions, University of California, USA, and Sikh scholar, died on 1st Feb 2009, after battling stomach cancer. He was 86.
Prof. King, who joined what was then a relatively new campus in 1968, "was an extraordinarily popular teacher and widely respected scholar," Georges Van Den Abbeele, dean of humanities at UCSC, said in a statement. "Many of us remember Noel's lively presence on campus and his commanding lecture style on the subject of his expertise: comparative religious studies."
 Prof King was also the visiting professor of the GNDU and Punjabi University, Patiala. He was one of the few foreign scholars who had written authentic Sikh history and had presided over one of the important sessions of the World Sikh Sammelan in SGPC complex in 1995.
He used to be the centre of attraction for the Sikh scholars at functions held in Amritsar, other parts of Punjab, New Delhi and foreign countries.
Prof King once wrote unless the Sikhs themselves determined on a way ahead, produced suitable leadership and carried out total reconstruction and reform, they were doomed to classical fate mentioned by Macauliffe of getting an insider’s view of how the great snake of the Indian jungle dealt with its prey.
"He wore his learning so lightly that some people thought he didn’t t have any, though he was the author of six books and countless articles," Burke said. "He spanned the world and the mentalities, and God knows we had more than enough to go round in those days."
Born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, King grew up in Northern India and was educated in England. He served in the British Army during World War II before attending St. Peter's College at the University of Oxford, and later establishing departments of religious studies in Ghana and Uganda, his wife said. An ordained Episcopal priest, King would fill in at St. John the Baptist Church in Capitola.
King is survived by his wife; children Zoe Elkaim and Nathan King, both of Santa Cruz County, Francis King of Oxford, Clare Claydon of Australia, and Naomi Iliff and Jeremy King, both of London; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. |
