Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010

With pen in hand, he's a happy man

Former Green Beret finds second career in calligraphy

You'd likely never think of a former Green Beret - among the toughest our U.S. Army grooms - as the kind of guy who'd take up a passion for the beautifully flowing, old-world fancy lettering art of calligraphy.

Meet Don King, who nearly 30 years ago chose professional calligraphy as his encore career.

"I give all the credit to God," King told me. "It was a mid-life, total career change."

From 1959 to 1980, King was a soldier.

He served two years in Vietnam, worked as a radio operator, advanced through officer candidate school, rose in rank to second lieutenant of the infantry, completed seven years as a commissioned officer in the Army Special Forces and served as commander of the A-Team.

He taught at Penn State University, too.

By the time King became a military retiree, he already knew his Army career path didn't match well with most 9-to-5s suitable for second-career folks.

But he tried; working a few years in middle management positions he thought might align with his military experience.

"But I am diametrically opposed to people working with focus on quitting time, vacation time, and covering their butts than doing the job right and well," he said. "I find myself to be totally incompatible with that type of atmosphere."

King, who turned 72 on Veterans Day, discovered calligraphy after reading Richard Bolles' "What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers."

"Everything in there pointed to something in graphic arts," King recalls.

That made sense to King because, "I've been drawing pictures since I could hold a pencil," he said.

King didn't say it, and some tough-guys might consider it a stretch, but through my eyes the discipline, patience and practice so necessary to be a good soldier also are necessary to do something as detailed and creative as calligraphy.

In his "Parachute" books - oft rewritten, updated and expanded to encourage job-seekers of all ilk navigating even the harshest economic times - Bolles advises folks to search their souls to pinpoint and nail the "job of your dreams."

Doing so, he says, is the answer to our ultimate search for true happiness.

And at a time when a lot of us are still pushing to pull ourselves out of the recessionary abyss, King's story - though the effect born of a different cause - holds inspiration.

In 1982, after reading Bolles' book, King "had never heard the word 'calligraphy.'"

Even so, he discovered and introduced himself to a statewide group of calligraphers through the Carolina Lettering Arts Society and later took a 10-week course.

"The bug hit me," he said. "I fell in love with it and I haven't been able to put down a pen since."

King also joined the Triangle Calligraphers' Guild, a contingent of about 25 people, a fifth of whom are professional calligraphers.

The others are hobbyists, said King, a past president of both CLAS and the Guild.

"Calligraphy can either be tedious and boring, or it can be totally enthralling," he said.

"The key is you're going to do well that which you love. Not everyone does. But I do.

"When my pen makes a perfect 'A,' I feel the same sense of satisfaction as I did the first time I made a perfect 'A,'" King explained.

King's one-of-a-kind works - known for his use of design, illustration and color to "serve the words" - can be found throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and South Africa.

His clientele consists half-and-half of individuals and companies or organizations.

Requests from individuals often lean toward something to serve as a keepsake for special memories.

That often means poems, Bible verses, wedding vows and personalized songs.

Companies and organizations ask King to scribe things like special recognition certificates for employees and materials for company events.

"I don't really consider it work," King said.

"I do what I love - and God's blessed me. They pay me for it."

Nowadays, King also is re-designing his parachute a bit.

Beginning in January, King will spend more time teaching calligraphy, passing on to others the knowledge, understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of the style of ornamental handwriting found throughout history and across cultures dating back to ancient times.

"I'm trying to teach myself how to be retired," he said. "I'm getting to the age where I need to slow down, spend some time with myself and learn how to say, 'No.'"

But saying no doesn't mean King will stop doing all commissioned work.

It does mean he'll pay it forward by referring work that comes to him first to other local, professional calligraphers.

King will hold classes and workshops on Computer Drive off Six Forks Road.

They're open to anybody 14 and older who's interested in learning everything from Beginning Italic and Beginning Copperplate to Envelopes & Etiquette and Color & Calligraphy.

To find out more, including costs and class-size requirements, check out dkingstudio.com, or call 919-847-9408.

"There are so many people who don't really know what calligraphy is," King said.

"It's a good thing to learn."