Charles E. King

Charles E. King
King, prior 1921
Background information
Birth name	Charles Edward King
Born	(1874-01-29)January 29, 1874 Estate of Queen Emma of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Died	February 27, 1950(1950-02-27) (aged 76) United States
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, composer, legislator, educator
Associated acts	Royal Hawaiian Band

Charles Edward King (January 29, 1874 – February 27, 1950) was an educator, Hawaii territorial legislator, and a songwriter who is most widely known as the composer of "Ke Kali Nei Au". King was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1995.

Charles E. King was born of Hawaiian ancestry, at the Nuʻuanu Valley estate of Queen Emma of Hawaii, in Honolulu, to Walter and Mary Ann Brash. He was adopted by his maternal grandfather John Lewis King after the death of his mother, and was christened by his godmother Queen Emma at St. Andrew's Cathedral. King was educated in public schools in Hawaii and the Kamehameha School for Boys. Following his 1891 graduation from Kamehameha School, Charles Reed Bishop, husband of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, paid his tuition at Oswego Primary Teachers Training School in New York. He returned to Hawaii, teaching music in the Kailua-Kona school district, and also at Kamehameha School for Boys. In 1914, Kamehameha alumni circulated a petition requesting that King be named school principal, but Ernest C. Webster was chosen instead.

When Bishop Estate trustee Samuel Mills Damon resigned in 1916, the trustees named former teacher William Williamson, a white man, to fill the vacancy. As established by the original trust deed, any trustee appointment had to be approved by the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands. With his post-teaching success in business, Williamson's nomination easily received that approval. The nomination ran into trouble with Judge C. W. Ashford of the probate court that was charged with overseeing trusts. Ashford decreed that the slot should be filled by someone of Hawaiian ancestry, and therefore representative of the very people for whom the trust was established. He appointed alumnus King, who had spoken openly about his concerns that the school was under-performing academically and not adequately preparing its graduates for career or economic success. Ashford's appointment of King was overturned on appeal in the ninth circuit court, which ruled in favor of the original Williamson appointment having been in strict accordance with the trust deed.