Philip L. King, an optician and former owner of Bowen & King Inc., died of congestive heart failure Saturday at the health facility of Meadowood Retirement Community in Bloomington, Ind. He was 90.
Mr. King was born in Baltimore and, after the death of his parents, was raised by relatives in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He returned to the city and graduated from McDonogh School in 1932.
In the early 1930s, Mr. King joined the family business that had been established by an uncle in 1900 and was located at 405 N. Charles St. Mr. King, an early contact lens specialist in Baltimore, in the early 1960s purchased what became a small chain of optical stores. He sold it in 1985.
He was a longtime resident of Lambeth Road in Guilford before moving to Bloomington in 1992.
Mr. King was a voracious reader. "He loved libraries and books, and at lunchtime he'd go over to the Enoch Pratt library on Cathedral Street and read while eating," said his son Andrew P. King of Bloomington.
Mr. King also enjoyed following the stock market and managing his investments.
In the late 1930s, he married Rachel Gatch, who died in 1998.
Services will be private.
Mr. King also is survived by another son, Philip L. King Jr. of Boston; a brother, Robert King of Waterford, Mich.; and two grandsons.
