Jeff and Cindy King got married and had their first child when Jeff was still a student at Penn State. To support his young family, King ’67 Bus worked shoveling coal into the boilers under College Avenue to heat the stores above. “He would come home black like a coal miner,” says Cindy. “Every other day I was at the laundromat.”

Despite the level of professional success he went on to reach with his real estate company, National Properties Inc., King continued to tell that story throughout his life. “It really captured who he was,” says Julie Borrelli ’94 H&HD, one of three daughters the couple raised while King grew the real estate investment, property management, and development firm based in Malvern, Pa. King was a demanding boss, “but what he demanded of others he put in tenfold himself,” Borrelli says. He was also known for his sense of humor and devotion to his family. 

The success of King’s company allowed him to give back philanthropically. In the Smeal College of Business, the Kings created the Jeffery L. and Cindy M. King Faculty Fellowship in Business and the King Family Early Career Professorship in Real Estate. He was a founding member of the Penn State Real Estate Advisory Board and the King Center for Lynch Syndrome at Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center. The inherited genetic disorder increases one’s risk of certain types of cancer. 

“Lynch Syndrome ended up taking his life, and he had no control over passing it on to two of his three children,” Borrelli says, “but it’s something he can now influence due to tremendous research.” 

King (FKS, Baseball) died Aug. 1, 2025, in Malvern. Besides Cindy and Julie, he is survived by siblings Brenda ’72 Agr, Kathy, and Max, daughters Karilyn and Kelley, and five grandchildren. —RR