Dr. Maria King
Well-respected local pediatrician and Southern Mono Hospital District Board member Dr. Maria King, who launched a very successful private practice in Mammoth (Day and Night Pediatrics) after starting in Mammoth at Mammoth Hospital, died peacefully in her sleep at her home on September 5.
She leaves behind a staunch and wonderful husband in Jon and beloved daughter Peri.
Maria was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Hackensack High School. She then went on to earn Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and performed groundbreaking research in computer security.
In the 1980s, she traveled west to get her doctorate in computer science from UCLA.
She met husband Jon in 1987 (she was on a consulting job at his place of employment). They married in 1990 at Pokonobe Lodge.
Both shared a love of the outdoors, of skiing and of Mammoth. Both served on ski patrol together in Southern California at Mt. Baldy.
Later, Maria served on the ski patrol at June Mountain.
In the mid-1990s, what Maria did was nothing short of crazy and amazing and unprecedented. She gave up her very lucrative computer consulting business, and traded it in for … medical school.
Yes, as she entered her 40s, she embarked on a second career. As husband Jon recalled, “It wasn’t easy for her, and it wasn’t easy on us, but we fully supported it.”
During her residency, Jon said, she commuted from Venice to Orange County. He said her friends would worry about her and call her to keep her awake on those long drives.
The Kings bought a condo in Mammoth in 2005 and moved here permanently soon thereafter.
As Jon wrote, “She loved Mammoth, and was committed to the community and its children and cared deeply for each and every one of her patients. She was always striving to provide the best possible care and arrange for services that were not available in our local community.
Numerous clients can attest to the fact that Maria seemingly never slept. If you called her hotline at midnight in a panic, you’d get a call back within fifteen minutes. It was as if her mother bear instinct was always activated. She truly was wired into her clients – and client is too impersonal a term. They were all her kids.
Maria was not one to give up easily on anything. She fought bravely through her illness, continuing to provide care for children almost up to the end.
Maria’s caring for children didn’t end with their medical needs. She was a big supporter of the mammoth Mountain Community Foundation (MMCF), which funds and implements academic, athletic and outdoor programs that bring kids from different backgrounds together at school and on Mammoth Mountain to learn, compete, talk, become lifelong friends and ultimately realize their full potential. Maria frequently volunteered for MMCF activities and was a fixture at the annual Mammoth Invitational.
Above all else, however, Maria loved her daughter fiercely. It was her goal to see Peri graduate from high school, and even though she fell just a bit short, she loved and supported Peri to the end.
In fact, with the help of her husband and neighbors Leslie and Jack Markovitz, she was able to watch Peri cheerlead at Mammoth’s first high school football game of the season vs. Frazier Mountain.
Maria was the eldest of five children. She was preceded in death by her brother Michael. Her other siblings live in Boston and New Jersey and she is survived as well by numerous nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1475, Mammoth Lakes, calif. 93546.
