Spring 2002

Employee of the Year - Mike King

Lighthouse President George Jacobson congratulates Employee of the Year, Mike King.

Mike King, avid fisherman and devoted father, has earned Lighthouse Employee of the Year honors for 2001. Mike will compete with over 80 award-winners from other agencies throughout the country for the National Industries for the Blind Peter J. Salmon Manufacturing Employee of the Year award.

"My Mom and Dad moved up to Seattle from California," recalls Boeing Department Lead, Mike King. "They heard about the Lighthouse from the RP (retinitis pigmentosa) Foundation. In October of 1990 they took a tour of the Lighthouse. They called me at my home in Wyoming, and my Dad said that this would be a good place for me to be." After receiving that phone call from his parents, Mike contacted the Lighthouse. "I called them up and they offered me a job," he continues. "I told them I couldn't move up to Seattle until I knew for sure. They said to come on up, so my wife and I moved in January of 1991. It's the best thing I've ever done."

Working in a hospital kitchen in Cheyenne, Mike felt trapped in a dead-end job. "I was making $4.75 an hour," he remembers. "There was no possibility of advancement." Upon arriving at the Lighthouse, Mike spent his first week making boxes for paper trimmers. Lighthouse management quickly transferred him to the Boeing Department. "I worked in the shear area of the Boeing Department for about four years," Mike says. "Later, I went to first part inspection. I really enjoyed that. When people out on the shop floor were done setting up a job, they would make the first part, and then bring it to me for checking. After I checked it against the specs and drawings and made sure all the dimensions were right, I'd stamp the work order and then they could run the rest of the order."

More recently, Mike applied for a Lead position in the phenolic area of the Boeing Department, where nonmetallic parts are produced. "I applied for it, and here I am today," he adds.

Mike was officially diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in his early twenties. "It was a shock to me," he admits. "All my life my Mom knew something was wrong but no doctor ever found it. When I turned 21 it really showed up. That was the beginning stage, but I was still able to drive. When I was 27 they told me I couldn't drive anymore. That was the biggest shock of all for me, not being able to drive."

RP typically begins with night blindness and deterioration of peripheral vision. Mike currently sees the world through a narrow tunnel of remaining sight. "When we found out about my RP, my Mom took it really hard," Mike recalls. "The doctor said he didn't know how fast it would progress. The Lighthouse has helped me work with it very well, just being around people who are blind and seeing what they can do. The Lighthouse told me when I started here I'd probably be a Lead some day, and it came true," Mike concludes with a grin.

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