Peter P. King | Owned business, 68

Peter P. King, 68, of Ambler, owner of King Surety, died of pancreatic cancer Thursday, June 17, at home.

Mr. King graduated from Abington High School and attended St. Joseph's University.

During the Vietnam War, he served in the Army Security Agency, then the Army's signal intelligence branch, in Chitose, Japan.

After his discharge, he studied business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and worked for an insurance agency.

In 1974, he established the King Co., an insurance and bond agency located in Fort Washington and later in Jenkintown. He sold the business in the 1990s.

Since 2000, he and his wife, Christine, had operated King Surety in Fort Washington. The company specialized in bonding for contractors in the mid-Atlantic region.

Mr. King was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2008, and had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. He had "an everlasting will to fight" and did "miraculously well," his wife said. The cancer was in remission for 19 months until recurring in March, she said.

Mr. King enjoyed golf, travel abroad, and, before he owned his own business, boating on the Chesapeake.

He was passionate about his political views, his wife said, and was past chairman of the Montgomery County Young Republicans. He was active in election campaigns for Lawrence Coughlin, a member of the House of Representatives from 1969 to 1993.

In addition to his wife, Mr. King is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 22, at St. Alphonsus Church, 33 Conwell Dr., Maple Glen. Friends may call from 10.